Author Description

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. He was a "nigger" in a white man's world, and his crimes upset the whole of Chicago. He killed his first young victim in an unpremeditated moment of panic—and found himself caught up by forces outside his control and understanding. But at last he felt alive. He felt a sense of freedom and identity in his acts of violence that neither his woman, Bessie, with her whiskey, nor his mother, with her religion, had been able to give him. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is just as meaningful today as when it was written, both in its unsparing reflection of the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and in what it means to be black in America. An undisputed classic since it was first published in 1945. Native Son has sold close to three million copies. --back cover