Emma Lou was born black. Too black for her own comfort and that of her social-climbing wannabe family. Resented by those closest to her, she runs from her small hometown to Los Angeles and then to Harlem of the 1920's, seeking her identity and an escape from the pressures of the black community. She drifts from one loveless relationship to another in the search for herself and a place in a society where prejudice towards her comes not only from whites, but from her own race

This novel, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, is considered groundbreaking for its exploration of colorism and racial discrimination within the black community, where lighter skin was often favored, especially for women.

The Blacker the Berry is the provocative and illuminating 1929 novel by Harlem Renaissance author Wallace Thurman. The novel follows the life of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. She is born and raised by her single mother in the predominantly white community of Boise, Idaho. She often feels like an outsider, even among her family, as they are lighter skinned than she, and believes that her dark skin will keep her from marrying and having an easy life. Emma wants a better life for herself and goes to college at the University of Southern California, hopeful she will find people who will accept her. While she finds a larger black community at college, she continues to feel like an outsider and is often made to feel inferior and unwanted due to her darker skin. Emma Lou's search for love and acceptance takes her to New York and the vibrant black community of Harlem after college, but she continues to face prejudice and rejection in a world she thought would be more accepting of her. Critically acclaimed, The Blacker the Berry remains an unflinching and thought-provoking examination of race, prejudice, and self-acceptance. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.

A groundbreaking, yet controversial novel of the Harlem Renaissance about a young, dark-skinned Black woman reckoning with colorism as she navigates 1920s Harlem, reissued and repackaged for the Herald Classics line.

Emma Lou Morgan's dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humiliation--not only to herself, but also to her lighter-skinned family members and the white community of her hometown, Boise, Idaho. Hoping to find a safe haven, Emma travels to New York's Harlem, the Black Mecca of the 1920s. Wallace Thurman brings to life this legendary time and place in rich detail, describing Emma's visits to nightclubs, dance halls, and house-rent parties, her sex life and catastrophic love affairs, her dreams and her disillusions--and the momentous decision she makes to survive.

A lost classic of Black American literature, The Blacker the Berry is a compelling portrait of the destructive depth of intra-racial bias in the Black community.

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Illustrated Edition. Facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Fire!! was an African-American literary magazine published in New York City in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was started by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John P. Davis, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett, Lewis Grandison Alexander, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. After it published one issue, its quarters burned down, and the magazine ended. This issue is the only one published by the journal. Fire!! was conceived to express the African-American experience during the Harlem Renaissance in a modern and realistic fashion, using literature as a vehicle of enlightenment. The magazine's founders wanted to express the changing attitudes of younger African Americans. In Fire!! they explored controversial issues in the Black community, such as homosexuality, bisexuality, interracial relationships, promiscuity, prostitution, and color prejudice.

Langston Hughes wrote that the name was intended to symbolize their goal to burn up a lot of the old, dead conventional Negro-white ideas of the past ... into a realization of the existence of the younger Negro writers and artists, and provide us with an outlet for publication not available in the limited pages of the small Negro magazines then existing. The magazine's headquarters burned to the ground shortly after it published its first issue, ending its operations.

Contents: Cover designs / Aaron Douglas -- Foreword -- Drawing / Richard Bruce -- Cordelia the crude, a Harlem sketch / Wallace Thurman -- Color struck, a play in four scenes / Zora Neale Hurston -- Flame from the dark tower -- a section of poetry. From the dark tower / Countée Cullen; A Southern road / Helene Johnson; Jungle taste; Finality / Edward Silvera; The death bed / Waring Cuney; Elevator boy; Railroad avenue / Langston Hughes; Length of moon / Arna Bontemps; Little Cinderella; Streets / Lewis Alexander -- Drawing / Richard Bruce -- Wedding day, a story / Gwendolyn Bennett -- Three drawings / Aaron Douglas -- Smoke, lilies and jade, a novel, part I / Richard Bruce -- Sweet, a story / Zora Neale Hurston -- Intelligentsia, an essay / Arthur Huff Fauset -- Fire burns, editorial comments / Wallace Thurman -- Incidental art decorations / Aaron Douglas.

2020 Reprint of the 1932 Edition. Thurman is perhaps best known for this novel, which is a satire of what he believed were the overrated creative figures of the Harlem scene. Some reviewers welcomed Thurman's bold insight, while others vilified him as a racial traitor. A thinly disguised memoir of Thurman's own experiences in the 1920s. This novel] centers on the larger-than-life denizens of a Harlem mansion called Niggeratti Manor The Novel pokes fun at a few famous writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes. Thurman weaves a hilarious story that critiques the paternalistic Negro author/white patron relationship, uncovers the social-class antagonisms in the Afro-American community, and foreshadows the sexual and social themes of James Baldwin and E. Lynn Harris. Thurman's elegant and elastic prose adds more illumination to this bright period in African American literature. --Eugene Holley Jr.at Amazon.com.

This delightful roman clef about the Harlem Renaissance reflects . . . many of the competing notions of its time -- between the masses and individuality, between art and uplift, between civilization and primitivism, between separatism and assimilation. -- Kirkus Reviews

The groundbreaking Harlem Renaissance novel about prejudice within the black community

Emma Lou Morgan's skin is black. So black that it's a source of shame to her not only among the largely white community of her hometown of Boise, Idaho, but also among her lighter-skinned family and friends. Seeking a community where she will be accepted, she leaves home at age eighteen, traveling first to Los Angeles and then to New York City, where in the Harlem of the 1920s she finds a vibrant scene of nightclubs and dance halls and parties and love affairs . . . and, still, rejection by her own race.

One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, and the first novel to openly address prejudice among black Americans and the issue of colorism, The Blacker the Berry . . . is a book of undiminished power about the invidious role of skin color in American society.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 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.

Mirroring Nella Larsen's Passing, The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is the fantastic debut of Wallace Thurman.

A Black boy could get along but a Black girl would never know anything but sorrow and disappointment.

Emma Lou was born black. Abandoned by her father at birth, she is subjected to skin bleaching by her mother, hoping to make her child more desirable. Learning that she is unwanted in white society but also ostracized within her own, Emma Lou navigates a harsh and unrelenting world as she tries to come to terms with her life and love herself in the skin she's in.

Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is a reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.

Originally published in 1929, The Blacker the Berry is a novel by American novelist Wallace Henry Thurman (1902-1934). An active writer during the Harlem Renaissance, he produced essays, worked as an editor, and was a publisher of numerous newspapers and journals. His best-known work, The Blacker the Berry, represents a detailed exploration of the discrimination within the black community based on skin colour, with a higher value being placed on lighter skin. A moving tale of the hardships faced by African-American post-emancipation not to be missed by those interested in black history and literature. Contents include: If I Had Known by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Emma Lou, Harlem, Alva, Rent Party, Pyrrhic Victor. Read & Co. Classics is proudly republishing this classic novel now in a brand new edition, complete with the introductory poem If I Had Known by Alice Dunbar-Nelson.

Published to mixed reception, Wallace Thurman's Infants of the Spring is a controversial take on the realities of Black life in the shadow of a cultural boom. '...you're right. I was frightened. After all I had never seen a Negro before in my life, that is, not over two or three, and they were only dim, passing shadows with no immediate reality. New York itself was alarming enough, but when I emerged from the subway at 135th Street, I was actually panic stricken. It was the most eerie experience I have ever had. I felt alien, creepy, conspicuous, ashamed. I wanted to camouflage my white skin, and assume some protective coloration. At times disillusioned by the cultural boom that was the Harlem Renaissance, Wallace Thurman formed a small group, The Niggerati, built up of artists and intellectuals who often clashed with the ideals of the movement. Dedicated to showing Black life as it was rather than as it should be, he produced his second novel, Infants of the Spring, a deconstruction and satire of the time when the Negro was in vogue. Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of Infants of Spring is a sensational reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance satire for the modern reader.

In The Blacker the Berry..., a classic yet provocative novel written during the Harlem Renaissance, a young woman must reckon with colorism in the Black community as she navigates 1920s New York City.

One of the most widely read and controversial works of the Harlem Renaissance, The Blacker the Berry...was the first novel to openly explore prejudice within the Black community. This pioneering novel found a way beyond the bondage of Blackness in American life to a new meaning in truth and beauty.

Emma Lou Brown's dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humiliation--not only to herself, but to her lighter-skinned family and friends and to the white community of Boise, Idaho, her hometown. As a young woman, Emma travels to New York's Harlem, hoping to find a safe haven in the Black Mecca of the 1920s. Wallace Thurman recreates this legendary time and place in rich detail, describing Emma's visits to nightclubs and dance halls and house-rent parties, her sex life and her catastrophic love affairs, her dreams and her disillusions--and the momentous decision she makes in order to survive.

A lost classic of Black American literature, The Blacker the Berry...is a compelling portrait of the destructive depth of racial bias in this country. A new introduction by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, author of The Sweeter the Juice, highlights the timelessness of the issues of race and skin color in America.

A Black boy could get along but a Black girl would never know anything but sorrow and disappointment. Mirroring Nella Larsen's Passing, The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is the fantastic debut of Wallace Thurman.

Emma Lou was born black. Abandoned by her father at birth, she is subject to skin bleaching by her mother who hopes to make the child more desirable. Learning that she is unwanted in white society but also ostracized within her own, Emma Lou navigates a harsh and unrelenting world as she tries to come to terms with her life and love herself in the skin she's in.

Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is a reimaging of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

LARGE PRINT EDITION. Mirroring Nella Larsen's Passing, The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is the fantastic debut of Wallace Thurman.

A Black boy could get along but a Black girl would never know anything but sorrow and disappointment.

Emma Lou was born black. Abandoned by her father at birth, she is subjected to skin bleaching by her mother, hoping to make her child more desirable. Learning that she is unwanted in white society but also ostracized within her own, Emma Lou navigates a harsh and unrelenting world as she tries to come to terms with her life and love herself in the skin she's in.

Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life is a reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

The tragedy of her life was that she was too black, declares the narrator at the start of this powerful novel of intraracial prejudice. Emma Lou Morgan lives in a world of scorn and shame, not because her skin is black, but because it's too black. No one among her family, teachers, and friends has a word of consolation or hope for the despised and rejected girl. With nothing to lose, eighteen-year-old Emma Lou leaves her home in Idaho, seeking love and acceptance on a journey that ultimately leads her to the legendary community of the Harlem Renaissance.
A source of controversy upon its 1929 publication, The Blacker the Berry was the first novel to openly address color prejudice among black Americans. Author Wallace Thurman, an active member of the Harlem Renaissance, vividly recaptures the era's mood and spirit. His portrait of a young woman adrift in the city forms an enduringly relevant reflection of the search for racial, sexual, and cultural identity.

[T]his delightful roman à clef about the Harlem Renaissance reflects . . . many of the competing notions of its time -- between the masses and individuality, between art and uplift, between civilization and primitivism, between separatism and assimilation. -- Kirkus Reviews
This minor classic of the Harlem Renaissance centers on the larger-than-life inhabitants of Niggerati Manor, an apartment building modeled on the rooming house where the author once lived among other celebrated black artists and writers. Enlivened by characters based on Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke, Wallace Thurman's rollicking novel satirizes the cultural confusion surrounding a golden age of African-American art and literature.
Infants of the Spring was originally published in 1932 -- shortly after the author's ground-breaking novel on interracial prejudice, The Blacker the Berry, and two years before his untimely death. Thurman's elegant prose and witty characterizations offer revealing insights into conflicts within the African-American artistic community as well as the struggle to maintain artistic integrity.

Published to mixed reception, Wallace Thurman's Infants of the Spring is a controversial take on the realities of Black life in the shadow of a cultural boom. '...you're right. I was frightened. After all I had never seen a Negro before in my life, that is, not over two or three, and they were only dim, passing shadows with no immediate reality. New York itself was alarming enough, but when I emerged from the subway at 135th Street, I was actually panic stricken. It was the most eerie experience I have ever had. I felt alien, creepy, conspicuous, ashamed. I wanted to camouflage my white skin, and assume some protective coloration. At times disillusioned by the cultural boom that was the Harlem Renaissance, Wallace Thurman formed a small group, The Niggerati, built up of artists and intellectuals who often clashed with the ideals of the movement. Dedicated to showing Black life as it was rather than as it should be, he produced his second novel, Infants of the Spring, a deconstruction and satire of the time when the Negro was in vogue. Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of Infants of Spring is a sensational reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance satire for the modern reader.

2015 Reprint of 1929 Edition. This novel, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, is considered groundbreaking for its exploration of colorism and racial discrimination within the black community, where lighter skin was often favored, especially for women. The novel tells the story of Emma Lou Morgan, a young black woman with dark skin. It begins in Boise, Idaho and follows Emma Lou in her journey to college at USC and a move to Harlem, New York City for work. Set during the Harlem Renaissance, the novel explores Emma Lou's experiences with colorism, discrimination by lighter-skinned African Americans due to her dark skin. She learns to come to terms with her skin color in order to find satisfaction in her life.

This roman clef centers on Niggeratti Manor, fashioned after the Harlem rooming house in which Wallace Thurman once lived with other black artists and writers. Thurman's second novel is one of the most potent satires of the Harlem Renaissance and a retort to the idealized vision of Harlem's artistic community between World War I and the Depression.