Book: The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

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YaleNews features works recently or soon to be published by members of the University community. Descriptions are based on material provided by the publishers. Authors of new books may forward publishers’ book descriptions to us by email.

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

James Weldon Johnson; edited by Jacqueline Goldsby, professor of English & African American studies

(W.W. Norton & Company)

Known only as the “Ex-Colored Man,” the protagonist in this 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 and the original ending. A 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 earlier editions; and related writings by 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.

 Recent contributors are 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.

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