Black Boy is a firsthand account of what it was like to come of age in the Jim Crow South. Richard Wright’s story is an emotional journey through violence, abandonment, neglect, and hunger, as well as blatant racial discrimination. Richard Wright's Black Boy details the themes and history of this seminal American classic with thought-provoking critical essays, a comprehensive chronology of Wright's life and times, and an easy-to-follow index.

Richard Wright's "Native Son" (1940) is one of the most violent and revolutionary works in the American canon. Controversial and compelling, its account of crime and racism remain the source of profound disagreement both within African-American culture and throughout the world. This guide to Wright's provocative novel offers: an accessible introduction to the text and contexts of "Native Son"; a critical history, surveying the many interpretations of the text from publication to the present; a selection of reprinted critical essays on "Native Son", by James Baldwin, Hazel Rowley, Antony Dawahare, Claire Eby and James Smethurst...