First published in 1912, Johnson’s pioneering fictional “memoir” is an unprecedented analysis of the social causes and artistic consequences of a black man’s denial of his heritage.

Introduced by Maya Angelou, the inspiring sermon-poems of James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most revered African Americans of all time, whose life demonstrated the full spectrum of struggle and success. In God's Trombones, one of his most celebrated works, inspirational sermons of African American preachers are reimagined as poetry, reverberating with the musicality and splendid eloquence of the spirituals. This classic collection includes Listen Lord (A Prayer), The Creation, The Prodigal Son, Go Down Death (A Funeral Sermon), Noah Built the Ark, The Crucifixion, Let My People Go, and The Judgment Day. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Masked in the tradition of the literary confession as practiced by such writers as St. Augustine and Rousseau, this "autobiography" purports to be the candid account of its narrator's private views and feelings as well as an acknowledgement of the central secret of his life: that though he lives as a white man, he is, by heritage and experience, an African American. Tracing his journey from the South to the North and from America to Europe and back again, the narrator's first hand experiences on both sides of the colourline intimately demonstrates the qualities of race that are both established yet mutable. An important exploration into identity and how to establish it, Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man is a timeless and vital novel.

James Weldon Johnson's The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a powerful, trailblazing novel that exposes the intricate relationship between race and class in late nineteenth-century America. Complete & Unabridged. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is introduced by Dr Sam Halliday. After losing his mother at a very young age, the narrator is thrust from his comfortable, middle-class environment, afforded by his distant but aristocratic father, into the wider world. His passion for music begins in Georgia's all-black church community and takes him from New York, where he plays ragtime for a rich white gentleman, to the South, where he witnesses lynchings and out of fear gives up his passion, as well as his race, to pass for white. Relevant to this day, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is an unflinching account of black experience in America.

Known only as the Ex-Colored Man, the protagonist in Johnson s novel is forced to choose between celebrating his African American heritage or passing as an average white man in a post-Reconstruction America that is rapidly changing. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1912 text. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a note on the text. The appendices that follow the novel include materials available in no other edition: manuscript drafts of the final chapters, including the original lynching scene (chapter 10, ca. 1910) and the original ending (chapter 11, ca. 1908). An unusually rich selection of Backgrounds and Sources focuses on Johnson s life; the autobiographical inspirations for The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; the cultural history of the era in which Johnson lived and wrote; the noteworthy reception history for the 1912, 1927, and 1948 editions; and related writings by Johnson. In addition to Johnson, contributors include Eugene Levy, W. E. B. Du Bois, Marcy A. Sacks, Carl Van Vechten, Blanche W. Knopf, Victor Weybright, and Cecile Fishbein, among others. The seven critical essays and interpretations in this volume speak to The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man s major themes, among them irony, authorship, passing, and parody. Early assessments (1930s 70s) are provided by Robert A. Bone, Robert Fleming, and Robert B. Stepto. Recent contributors are Jacqueline Goldsby, Samira Kawash, Christina L. Ruotolo, and M. Giulia Fabi. A chronology of Johnson s life and work and a selected bibliography are also included."

The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the work of such legendary artists as Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Fauset, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Carefully selected and supported with a masterful preface by Johnson, the poems herein reflect a range of voices, styles, and subjects drawn from tradition and experience alike. In his preface, Johnson justifies his anthology by identifying its vital purpose: "The public, generally speaking, does not know that there are American Negro poets-to supply this lack of information is, alone, a work worthy of somebody's effort." And the effort was his. In his poem "O Black and Unknown Bards," he asks "O black and unknown bards of long ago, / How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?" Recognizing the need for a reconciliation between the long tradition of black culture and the overwhelming erasure of his own contemporary artists, Johnson highlights the efforts of those poets who "Within [their] dark-kept soul[s], burst into song." Like Johnson himself, many of the poets included in The Book of American Negro Poetry work in a variety of voices, moving expertly from dialect to the traditional lyric in poems that harness the spirit of song and sermon alike. To borrow the words of Joseph S. Cotter Jr., a poet included in this anthology, these poems are elemental in their power to rejuvenate an exclusive national culture, and they "Rise and fall triumphant / Over every thing." With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of James Weldon Johnson's The Book of American Negro Poetry is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the work of such legendary artists as Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jessie Fauset, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Carefully selected and supported with a masterful preface by Johnson, the poems herein reflect a range of voices, styles, and subjects drawn from tradition and experience alike. In his preface, Johnson justifies his anthology by identifying its vital purpose: "The public, generally speaking, does not know that there are American Negro poets-to supply this lack of information is, alone, a work worthy of somebody's effort." And the effort was his. In his poem "O Black and Unknown Bards," he asks "O black and unknown bards of long ago, / How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?" Recognizing the need for a reconciliation between the long tradition of black culture and the overwhelming erasure of his own contemporary artists, Johnson highlights the efforts of those poets who "Within [their] dark-kept soul[s], burst into song." Like Johnson himself, many of the poets included in The Book of American Negro Poetry work in a variety of voices, moving expertly from dialect to the traditional lyric in poems that harness the spirit of song and sermon alike. To borrow the words of Joseph S. Cotter Jr., a poet included in this anthology, these poems are elemental in their power to rejuvenate an exclusive national culture, and they "Rise and fall triumphant / Over every thing." With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of James Weldon Johnson's The Book of American Negro Poetry is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

A gifted musician's decision to navigate society as a white man causes an internal debate about anti-blackness and the explicit nature of intent versus impact. James Weldon Johnson presents a distinct conflict driven by a person's desires and overwhelming fear. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man follows the story of an unnamed narrator and his unique experience as a fair-skinned Black person. As a child, he is initially unaware of his race, but his mother soon clarifies their family's ancestry. The young man's ability to pass for white allows him to negate the harsh and discriminatory treatment most Black people face. This leads to a series of events that significantly shape the way he views his place in society. James Weldon Johnson delivers a captivating tale of identity politics in the U.S. and abroad. The main character is living a life of omission that provides public gain at a personal cost. This story maintains its relevance as a critical examination of race in society. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is both modern and readable.

A gifted musician's decision to navigate society as a white man causes an internal debate about anti-blackness and the explicit nature of intent versus impact. James Weldon Johnson presents a distinct conflict driven by a person's desires and overwhelming fear. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man follows the story of an unnamed narrator and his unique experience as a fair-skinned Black person. As a child, he is initially unaware of his race, but his mother soon clarifies their family's ancestry. The young man's ability to pass for white allows him to negate the harsh and discriminatory treatment most Black people face. This leads to a series of events that significantly shape the way he views his place in society. James Weldon Johnson delivers a captivating tale of identity politics in the U.S. and abroad. The main character is living a life of omission that provides public gain at a personal cost. This story maintains its relevance as a critical examination of race in society. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is both modern and readable.

Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917) is a collection of poems by James Weldon Johnson. Although less popular than his book God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927), Johnson's second poetry collection showcases his talents as a rising star of African American literature. Including some poems that would be featured in The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), an influential anthology compiled and edited by the poet himself, Fifty Years and Other Poems remains essential to Johnson's legacy as a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. "Fifty Years" opens the collection with an ode to emancipation, a starting point from which millions of men, women, and children were given the opportunity, however fragile it was, to pursue better lives. Rather than give thanks for freedom granted, however, Johnson implores his fellow Black Americans to remain proud, assured that liberty is their hard-earned right: "This land is ours by right of birth, / This land is ours by right of toil; / We helped to turn its virgin earth, / Our sweat is in its fruitful soil." Hopeful and resilient, Johnson reflects on his own place in this history of struggle, paying particular heed to his status as a poet, his ability to sing despite centuries of violent oppression. In his poem "O Black and Unknown Bards," he asks "O black and unknown bards of long ago, / How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?" Recognizing the need for a reconciliation between the long tradition of black culture and the overwhelming erasure of his own contemporary artists, Johnson highlights the efforts of those poets such as himself, who "Within [their] dark-kept soul[s], burst into song." >With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of James Weldon Johnson's Fifty Years and Other Poems is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standards - and double consciousness - experienced by Black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man became a pioneering document of African-American culture and an eloquent model for later novelists ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison. Narrated by a man whose light skin enables him to 'pass' for white, the novel describes a journey through the strata of Black society at the turn of the century - from a cigar factory in Jacksonville to an elite gambling club in New York, from genteel aristocrats to the musicians who hammered out the rhythms of Ragtime. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man is a complex and moving examination of the question of race and an unsparing look at what it meant to forge an identity as a man in a culture that recognized nothing but colour.

Sterling A. Brown was renowned for his prolific poetry and scholarship on African American folklife. A contemporary of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Jean Toomer and the first poet laureate of the District of Columbia, Brown gained acclaim for blues, jazz, and southern folklore. His celebrated works, including Southern Road, are collages of narrative and dialect unique to Brown's unflinching poetic voice. Edited by the late distinguished poet Michael S. Harper, this new edition includes a foreword by award-winning poet Cornelius Eady and introductory texts by James Weldon Johnson and Sterling Stuckey. The result is a tour de force by one of the most distinctive poets in American letters.