Celebrating 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 Harper Perennial Olive Edition.

When Black Boy exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, it 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,” and continues to remain controversial, coming under the scrutiny of censors today who are banning an alarming number of books.

Wright’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 Black Boy, 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.

One 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.

Harper Perennial Olive Editions are exclusive small-format editions of some of our bestselling and celebrated titles, and feature unique hand-drawn cover illustrations. All Olive Editions are available for a limited time only.