The Broadneck Library will be closed Monday, April 1 - Tuesday, April 16 for branch improvements. Please plan to pickup your holds at another location

The Riviera Beach Library is currently closed. For more information on the new location, please visit the Riviera Beach Library

Black Boy

Book Cover
Average Rating
Series:
Publisher:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Pub. Date:
Varies, see individual formats and editions
Language:
English
Lexile measure:
950L
Description

A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson.

When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that "if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy." Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for "obscenity" and "instigating hatred between the races."

Wright's once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a Black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and Blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he headed north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo." Seventy-five years later, his words continue to reverberate. "To read Black Boy is to stare into the heart of darkness," John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. "Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear."

One of the great American memoirs, Wright's account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.

Also in This Series
More Like This
More Details
ISBN:
9780061935480
9780063008618
9780063028593
Lexile measure:
950L
Staff View

Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDd9fc2315-d413-be74-1496-c353efd3da0e
Grouping Titleblack boy
Grouping Authorrichard wright
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2024-03-28 04:05:51AM
Last Indexed2024-03-28 04:32:14AM

Solr Fields

accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Wright, Richard
author_display
Wright, Richard
available_at_aacpl
Online OverDrive Collection
detailed_location_aacpl
Online OverDrive Collection
display_description

A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson.

When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that "if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy." Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for "obscenity" and "instigating hatred between the races."

Wright's once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a Black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him—whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and Blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he headed north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo." Seventy-five years later, his words continue to reverberate. "To read Black Boy is to stare into the heart of darkness," John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. "Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear."

One of the great American memoirs, Wright's account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.

format_aacpl
eAudiobook
eBook
format_category_aacpl
Audio Books
eBook
id
d9fc2315-d413-be74-1496-c353efd3da0e
isbn
9780061935480
9780063008618
9780063028593
last_indexed
2024-03-28T08:32:14.488Z
lexile_score
950
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_aacpl
Online OverDrive
owning_library_aacpl
Anne Arundel County Public Library Online
owning_location_aacpl
Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9780061935480
publishDate
2020
publisher
Caedmon
HarperCollins
recordtype
grouped_work
series
Read-On
series_with_volume
Read-On|
title_display
Black Boy
title_full
Black Boy
title_short
Black Boy
topic_facet
Biography & Autobiography
Nonfiction
Sociology

Solr Details Tables

item_details

Bib IdItem IdShelf LocCall NumFormatFormat CategoryNum CopiesIs Order ItemIs eContenteContent SourceeContent URLDetailed StatusLast CheckinLocation
overdrive:898737ea-6fd4-421e-bba4-370672ad94dc1Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeBookeBook2falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online
overdrive:17615116-713e-4150-b42a-c274cacbb1691Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeBookeBook2falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online
overdrive:21453d2f-d07b-411e-ab32-a1e5aae9676b1Online OverDrive CollectionOnline OverDriveeAudiobookAudio Books1falsetrueOverDriveAvailable Online

record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
overdrive:898737ea-6fd4-421e-bba4-370672ad94dceBookeBookEnglishHarperCollins2020
overdrive:17615116-713e-4150-b42a-c274cacbb169eBookeBookEnglishHarperCollins
overdrive:21453d2f-d07b-411e-ab32-a1e5aae9676beAudiobookAudio BooksEnglishCaedmon2020

scoping_details_aacpl

Bib IdItem IdGrouped StatusStatusLocally OwnedAvailableHoldableBookableIn Library Use OnlyLibrary OwnedHoldable PTypesBookable PTypesLocal Url
overdrive:898737ea-6fd4-421e-bba4-370672ad94dc1Available OnlineAvailable Onlinefalsetruetruefalsefalsetrue
overdrive:17615116-713e-4150-b42a-c274cacbb1691Available OnlineAvailable Onlinefalsetruetruefalsefalsetrue
overdrive:21453d2f-d07b-411e-ab32-a1e5aae9676b1Available OnlineAvailable Onlinefalsetruetruefalsefalsetrue