{"product_id":"black-boy-olive-editions-9780063458345b","title":"Black Boy (Olive Editions)","description":"\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003eCelebrating its eightieth anniversary, Richard Wright’s eloquent autobiography about growing up in the Jim Crow South that gives unique voice to being Southern, black, and male in early 20th century America—now available as a special \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eHarper Perennial Olive Edition.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/span\u003e exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, it was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/span\u003e 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, \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eBlack Boy \u003c\/span\u003ewas banned in schools throughout the United States for “obscenity” and “instigating hatred between the races,” and continues to remain controversial, coming under the scrutiny of censors today who are banning an alarming number of books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWright’s celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive it while Black. 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 made his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of \u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eBlack Boy\u003c\/span\u003e, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to “hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo.” Eighty year later, his words continue to reverberate.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOne of the great American memoirs, Wright’s account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance—a pioneering literary work that still illuminates our own time.\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: bold;\"\u003e“Superb. . . . A great American writer speaks with his own voice about matters that still resonate at the center of our lives.”—\u003cspan style=\"font-style: italic;\"\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperPerennial","offers":[{"title":"Bargain","offer_id":42870212427856,"sku":"9780063458345B","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0592\/8173\/5760\/files\/9780063458345-l.jpg?v=1785876367","url":"https:\/\/bookoutlet.com\/products\/black-boy-olive-editions-9780063458345b","provider":"Book Outlet","version":"1.0","type":"link"}