Chattel slavery in colonial America was an attack upon dynastic rule. The shot heard around the world was not a musket shot fired in April 1775. Rather, it was the verdict of Englands Supreme Court that slavery is an odious scheme and not authorized under Englands rule of law in June 1772. Englands traditions and rule of law were immutableit was truly a nation of laws and not of men. Depriving native sons of liberty at birth was unconstitutional. Colonial chattel slave practices were criminal enterprises, and Queen Charlotte, the wife of Englands King George the Third, recognized it as a threat to her son the Prince of Waless ascension to the British throne due to her obvious and much talked-about African heritage. Englands Queen Charlotte was black under the black codes one-drop rule, and she knew that if black native sons could lose their birthrights, though the rule of law declares them to be Englishmen, that pretenders to the kings throne might challenge her sons birthright. The queen concerned herself with great interest in the habeas corpus case of a colony of Virginia-born black named James Somersett. The significance of the Somersett habeas corpus case was Englands emancipation of its slaves has escaped telling. Told with all the power and drama of a novel, Kings Native Sons: Lies, Lessons and Legacies is an extraordinary account of a pulse-pounding human drama framed by political intrigue and raw human emotions (Larry Kenneth Alexander, cultural theorist). Contact [email protected] for pricing of prints, private book signings, and speaking engagements.

On the heels of the Great Depression and staring into the abyss of a global war, American writers took fiction and literature in a new direction that addressed the chaos that the nation—and the world—was facing. These authors spoke to the human condition in traumatic times, and their works reflected the dreams, aspirations, values, and hopes of people living in the World War II era. In FromNative Son to King’s Men: The Literary Landscape of 1940s America, Robert McParland examines notable works published throughout the decade. Among the authors covered are James Baldwin, Pearl S. Buck, James Gould Cozzens, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Hersey, Norman Mailer, Ann Petry, Irwin Shaw, John Steinbeck, Robert Penn Warren, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright. McParland explores how popular novels, literary fiction, and even short stories by these authors represented this pivotal period in American culture. By examining the creative output of these authors, this book reveals how the literature of the 1940s not only offered a pathway for that era’s readers but also provides a way of understanding the past and our own times. From Native Son to King’s Men will appeal to anyone interested in the cultural climate of the 1940s and how this period was depicted in American literature.

James Baldwin was beginning to be recognized as the most brilliant black writer of his generation when his first book of essays, Notes of a Native Son, established his reputation in 1955. No one was more pleased by the book’s reception than Baldwin’s high school friend Sol Stein. A rising New York editor, novelist, and playwright, Stein had suggested that Baldwin do the book and coaxed his old friend through the long and sometimes agonizing process of putting the volume together and seeing it into print. Now, in this fascinating new book, Sol Stein documents the story of his intense creative partnership with Baldwin through newly uncovered letters, photos, inscriptions, and an illuminating memoir of the friendship that resulted in one of the classics of American literature. Included in this book are the two works they created together–the story “Dark Runner” and the play Equal in Paris, both published here for the first time. Though a world of difference separated them–Baldwin was black and gay, living in self-imposed exile in Europe; Stein was Jewish and married, with a growing family to support–the two men shared the same fundamental passion. Nothing mattered more to either of them than telling and writing the truth, which was not always welcome. As Stein wrote Baldwin in a long, heartfelt letter, “You are the only friend with whom I feel comfortable about all three: heart, head, and writing.” In this extraordinary book, Stein unfolds how that shared passion played out in the months surrounding the creation and publication of Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, in which Baldwin’s main themes are illuminated. A literary event published to honor the eightieth anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth, Native Sons is a celebration of one of the most fruitful and influential friendships in American letters.

Coinciding with the preparations for the celebration in 2008 of Richard Wright’s 100th birthday, this new collection of critical essays on Native Son attests to the importance and endurance of Wright’s controversial work. The eleven essays collected in this volume engage the objective of Rodopi’s Dialogue Series by creating multidirectional conversations in which senior and younger scholars interact with each other and with previous scholars who have weighed in on the novel’s import. Speaking from distant corners of the world, the contributors to this book reflect an international interest in Wright’s unique combination of literary strategies and social aims. The wide range of approaches to Native Son is presented in five thematic sections. The first three sections cover aspects such as the historical reception of Wright’s novel, the inscription of sex and gender both in Native Son and in other African American texts, and the influence of Africa and of vortical symbolism on Wright’s aesthetics; following is the study of the novel from the point of view of its adoption and transformation of various literary genres—the African American jeremiad, the protest novel, the crime novel and courtroom drama, the Bildungsroman, and the Biblical modes of narration. The closing section analyzes the novel’s lasting influence through its adaptation to other artistic fields, such as the cinema and song in the form of hip-hop. The present volume may, therefore, be of interest for students who are not very familiar with Wright’s classic text as well as for scholars and Richard Wright specialists.

Education of a Native Son begins where the novel, Native Son, by Richard Wright ends. Thomas, a black young man who grew up in Harlem is accepted to a prestigious Ivy League university in New England. While in college Little, as he his known, will be confronted with the pressures of the everyday college student and the pressures of being Black at an all white university. In addition to adjusting to college life, he will soon learn the secret of his parents past, a past that could lead to the destruction of his family, friendships and ultimately his life.