![]() ![]() He realizes the actions he takes are of his own choosing, as harrowing as that outcome might be. What he experiences there becomes a metaphor for a journey into the heart of American darkness yet it's there that Daniels ultimately finds a kind of enlightenment. He manages to get away and escapes into the city's underground sewer system. He's taken into custody and tortured by white police officers until he is finally beaten into submission and confesses. This landmark novel, which his daughter, Julia Wright, unearthed at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and brought to LOA, tells the story of Fred Daniels, a Black man framed for a double murder he did not commit.ĭaniels is arrested one summer evening while strolling home from work to his pregnant wife after receiving his weekly salary. On April 20, 2021, 60-plus years after his death, the Library of America (LOA) will publish Wright's The Man Who Lived Underground. But what we didn't know until now is that despite his success, he was prevented from publishing another book-one that he considered the most important of all. Today, some eight decades later, he remains at the center of the American literary pantheon. With the publication of Native Son (1940) and Black Boy(1945), Richard Wright became a bestselling author and cultural icon. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |