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Native Son

Native Son

Native Son Paperback - 1987

by Wright, Richard

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Paperback. Very Good.
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Details

  • Title Native Son
  • Author Wright, Richard
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition [ Edition: Repri
  • Condition Used - Very good
  • Pages 432
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Harper Perennial, New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • Publication date 1987-01
  • Bookseller's Inventory # GOR003422260
  • ISBN 9780060809775 / 0060809779
  • Weight 0.49 lbs (0.22 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.01 x 4.21 x 1.16 in (17.81 x 10.69 x 2.95 cm)
  • Reading level 700
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects African Americans, Crime
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 86045710
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC
  • Quantity available 1

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About this book

Richard Wright’s Native Son tells the story of 20-year-old Bigger Thomas, a black American youth living in utter poverty in Chicago's South Side during the 1930s. When Bigger unintentionally murders a white woman, he is put on trial and eventually convicted, and sentenced to the electric chair. Often recognized as a protest novel, Native Son stresses systemic racial issues, prompting the reader to feel both sympathy and empathy for Bigger. In this, the novel is one of the earliest successful attempts to explain the racial divide in America in terms of the conditions imposed on African-Americans by the dominant white society.

Soon after publication, Native Son was selected by the Book of the Month Club as its first book by an African-American author. Indeed, the novel was an immediate best seller, selling 250,000 hardcover copies within three weeks of its publication. As a result of the novel’s success, Wright became the first bestselling and the wealthiest black writer of his time, establishing him as a spokesperson for African-American issues and, to many, the “father of Black American literature.” In 1941, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People awarded Wright awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal.

Unsurprisingly, Native Son was challenged in many public schools and libraries and is listed in the American Library Association's list of the “Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–1999.” Yet most institutions in which the novel was challenged successfully fought to keep Wright's work accessible, particularly in the classroom, defending it as a guide into the reality of the complex adult and social world.

 

Native son is listed as 20th on the Modern Library’s list of the “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also included in TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).

Reader reviews for Native Son

From the publisher

Richard Wright's powerful and bestselling masterpiece reflects the poverty and hopelessness of life in the inner city and what it means to be black in America.

First edition identification

Harper & Brothers first published Native Son in 1940. With a dark blue cover stamped in red and white, first editions state “First Edition” on the copyright page with "A - P" below the statement. The dust jacket of the first edition is green and yellow and states the original price of  $2.50.

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