Nigger Heaven

Book is askew. Corners bumped and rubbed to the board. Spine is tanned. Edge wear. Front hinge cracked. Pages lightly yellowed with a couple of small stains. Overall clean and binding is tight. No jacket.No other contemporary novel received the volume and intensity of criticism and curiosity that greeted "Nigger Heaven" upon its publication in 1926. Carl Van Vechten's novel generated a storm of controversy because of its scandalous title and fed an insatiable hunger on the part of the reading public for material relating to the black culture of Harlem's jazz clubs, cabarets, and social events. "The book and not the title is the thing", James Weldon Johnson insisted with regard to "Nigger Heaven", and the book is indeed a nuanced and vibrant portrait of "the great black walled city" of Harlem. Opening on a scene of tawdry sensationalism, "Nigger Heaven" shifts decisively to a world of black middle-class respectability, defined by intellectual values, professional ambition, and an acute consciousness of class and racial identity. Here is a Harlem where upper-class elites discuss art in well-appointed drawing rooms; rowdy and lascivious drunks spend long nights in jazz clubs and speakeasies; and, politically conscious young intellectuals drink coffee and debate "the race problem" in walk-up apartments. At the center of the story, two young people - a quiet, serious librarian and a volatile aspiring writer - struggle to love each other as their dreams are slowly suffocated by racism. This reissue is based on the fourteenth printing, which included songs and snatches of Blues sung by characters composed by Langston Hughes especially for the book. The reader will find, at the end of the book, a glossary of the unusual Negro words and phrases employed in this novel.

Product Info

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap

Year: 1928-01-01

Type: Used

Binding: Hardcover

Seller Info

HillCountryBooks

Address: 358 Skyland Dr Boerne, Texas

Website: https://www.hillcountrybooks.com

Country: United States