Native Son [Paperback]

Now an HBO Film!

“If one had to identify the single most influential shaping force in modern Black literary history, one would probably have to point to Wright and the publication ofNative Son.” – Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape.Native Sontells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic.

Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Richard Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

This edition--the restored text ofNative Sonestablished by the Library of America--also includes an essay by Wright titled, How Bigger was Born,along with notes on the text.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape.Native Sontells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

“Richard Wright’s masterpiece . . . taught me that it’s all right to have passion within your work, that you don’t need to shy away from politics in order to write fiction.”“A novel of tremendous power and beauty.”“The most powerful American novel to appear sinceThe Grapes of Wrath. . . so overwhelming is its central drive, so gripplS