Larger	Black Boy: American Hunger: A Record of Childhood and Youth Author: Richard Wright
	Book Information Publisher: Perennial Book Type: Paperback Rating: 22 ISBN-13: 9780060929787 - ISBN-10: 0060929782 Publication Date: 9/1/1998 Pages: 448 Book Reviews

With an introduction by Jerry W. Ward, Jr.
Originally published in 1945, this autobiography -- the story of Wright's Southern childhood, up to the time when he left Memphis for Chicago -- is considered by many critics to be his most important work. Richard Wright grew up in the woods of Mississippi amid poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and raged at those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about in taverns. Surly, brutal, cold, suspicious, and self-pitying, he was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common lot.

Black Boy is Richard Wright's powerful account of his journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. It is at once an unashamed confession and a profound indictment -- a poignant and disturbing record of social injustice and human suffering.

It is a classic of American autobiography, a subtly crafted narrative of Richard Wright's journey from innocence to experience in the Jim Crow South. An enduring story of one young man's coming of age during a particular time and place, Black Boy remains a seminal text in our history about what it means to be a man, black, and Southern in America.