American Hunger
Diane Dillon (Artwork) and Leo Dillon (Artwork) New York: Harper & Row, 1977. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Format is approximately 6 inches by 8.5 inches. [12], 146, [2] pages. DJ has an illustrated front. DJ has some wear and soiling. Afterword by Michael Fabre. Publisher's Note: The book published here was originally included by Richard Wright as the second part of an autobiography entitle American Hunger. Its working title was "The Horror and the Glory." The two parts were separated prior to publication and the first part was published in 1945 as Black Boy, the second apparently being intended for publication at a later date. Portions of the second section saw scattered publication in the 1940s, but with this volume it now appears intact for the first time. Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908 – November 28, 1960) was an American author of novels, short stories, poems, and non-fiction. Much of his literature concerns racial themes, especially related to the plight of African Americans during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries suffering discrimination and violence. Literary critics believe his work helped change race relations in the United States in the mid-20th century. In 1932, Wright began writing with the Federal Writer's Project and became a member of the Communist Party. In 1937, he became the Bureau Chief of the communist publication The Daily Worker. He would write over 200 articles for the publication from 1937 to 1938. Black Boy remains a work of historical, sociological, and literary significance whose portrayal of one black man's search for self-actualization in a racist society influenced the works of African-American writers who followed, such as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. Anyone who has read Richard Wright's Black Boy knows it to be one of he great American autobiographies. Covering Wright's early life in the South, the book concluded with his departure in 1934 for a new life in the North, Now, more than thirty years after the publication of Black Boy, Wright's story is continued with American Hunger. Derived from a Kirkus review: This long-withheld sequel to Black Boy is an affecting, illuminating register of the evolution of Wright's artistic and political consciousness in the ten-year period just before his first books were published. Written at the same time and scheduled for publication but delayed for obscure reasons, it follows Wright through the crucial years when he first went North to Chicago (1927-36): a series of classic odd jobs as dishwasher, clerk, insurance policy hustler; exposure to influential periodicals and unrestricted library shelves; a brief, disillusioning immersion in the John Reed Club, a knot of factional disputes; and the baffling, painful break with the comrades who challenged his artistic priorities and solemn integrity. The harsh, ragged childhood of Black Boy is never far behind: even after he secured a desirable post office job, the Depression kept him and his family hungry. But Wright focuses on the books that fortified his resolve to write (Proust, Stein, psychology and sociology texts) and the events that intensified his political awareness, especially a dismal episode of latent racism at a writers' congress in New York, the "trial" of an associate who questioned policies, and Wright's own exile by peremptory party members when he refused assignments and withdrew from active participation. Even today, when variations on these themes have become familiar, Wright's version remains both personally revealing and important for its sympathetic but critical portraits of his black fellow travelers, recent migrants with limited visions and no grasp of this new form of exploitation. The first of six unpublished works to be released by the Wright Archive Committee at Yale, this is welcome as a missing piece of the puzzle, valuable as a sequel, and impressive on its own. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: African-Americans, Racism, Discrimination, Race Relations, Communism, Federal Writer's Project, Expatriate, Writers, Novelist, Social Conditions, Fellow Travelers, Migrants
ISBN: 0060147687
[Book #85410]
Price: $125.00