But it’s still very readable, with very few rips or tears in the pages, and the title page especially remains gorgeously preserved. The cover of HBW’s copy is somewhat damaged, and the edges of the pages are a little weathered. However, it appears to be a first edition of the Grosset &Dunlap printings.Īlthough the dust jacket is long gone from our copy, originally, it would have looked similar to this one. The copy HBW holds is a re-print edition, published by Grosset & Dunlap Publishers simultaneously to the true first. True first editions of Native Son were published by Harper & Brothers Publishing. Held in HBW’s Special Collections, this copy of Wright’s groundbreaking novel isn’t a “true” first edition. Over the coming weeks and months, as we take on the inventory project, we’ll be sharing some of our holdings with you through the blog.įirst up, to mark the beginning of American Archives Month: an early edition of Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940). It’s a fairly massive undertaking, but it’s led to some fantastic (re-)discoveries–especially for me, since I’m still fairly new to staff and haven’t had much of a chance to really dig into the HBW archives yet and see what all we have. Here at the HBW offices, we’re working through the much-needed process of taking a complete re-inventory of our large collections of novels, plays, books of poetry, pamphlets, critical works, and other assorted African American cultural productions.
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