The Man Who Lived Underground

The Man Who Lived Underground is a masterpiece * Time Magazine *Moves continuously forward with its masterful blend of action and reflection, a kind of philosophy on the run… Whether or not The Man Who Lived Underground is Wright’s single finest work, it must be counted among his most significant * Wall Street Journal *Not just Wright’s masterwork, but also a milestone in African American literature… The Man Who Lived Underground is one of those indispensable works that reminds all its readers that, whether we are in the flow of life or somehow separated from it, above- or belowground, we are all human * CNN *Propulsive, haunting… The graphic, gripping book ends with a revealing companion essay that further explains the themes of this searing novel * Oprah Daily *The Man Who Lived Underground reminds us that any ‘greatest writers of the 20th century’ list that doesn’t start and end with Richard Wright is laughable. It might very well be Wright’s most brilliantly crafted, and ominously foretelling, book – Kiese LaymonA tale for today… [Wright’s] restored novel feels wearily descriptive of far too many moments in contemporary America * New York Times *This is a significant work of literary fiction from a legendary author that’s absolutely not to be missed * Book Riot *

Richard Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, in 1908, to a sharecropping family of ex–slaves. His mother was a schoolteacher but, abandoned by her husband, she had to resort to menial jobs to feed her two sons before suffering a series of strokes. During a childhood scarred by hunger, Wright lived in Memphis, Tennessee, then in an orphanage, and with various relatives. He left home at fifteen, returned to Memphis for two years to work, and in 1934 went to Chicago where he was employed at the Post Office before beginning work at the Federal Writers’ Project in 1935. He published Uncle Tom’s Children in 1938 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship the following year. His other books include Native Son (1940), his autobiography, Black Boy (1945), and The Outsider (1953). After the war, Richard Wright chose expatriation and went to live in Paris with his family, remaining there until his death in 1960.

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