The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (American Century Series) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Arna Bontemps (Introduction) "I KNOW THAT IN WRITING THE FOLLOWING PAGES I AM divulging the great secret of my life, the secret which for some years I have..." (more)
Key Phrases: coloured people, coloured men, coloured man, New York, United States, Red Head (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

James Weldon Johnson's emotionally gripping novel is a landmark in black literary history and, more than eighty years after its original anonymous publication, a classic of American fiction. The first fictional memoir ever written by a black, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man influenced a generation of writers during the Harlem Renaissance and served as eloquent inspiration for Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright. In the 1920s and since, it has also given white readers a startling new perspective on their own culture, revealing to many the double standard of racial identity imposed on black Americans.
Narrated by a mulatto man whose light skin allows him to "pass" for white, the novel describes a pilgrimage through America's color lines at the turn of the century--from a black college in Jacksonville to an elite New York nightclub, from the rural South to the white suburbs of the Northeast. This is a powerful, unsentimental examination of race in America, a hymn to the anguish of forging an identity in a nation obsessed with color. And, as Arna Bontemps pointed out decades ago, "the problems of the artist [as presented here] seem as contemporary as if the book had been written this year."

From the Inside Flap

First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standard -- and double consciousness -- that ruled the lives of 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-Coloured Man became a groundbreaking document of Afro-American culture; the first first-person novel ever written by a black, it became 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-Coloured 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 color. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 214 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang (March 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809000326
• ISBN-13: 978-0809000326
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #705,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Search for American Identity, February 24, 2000

By	D.J. Smith (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (Paperback)

Johnson's novel travels through various African-American societies (New England, Jacksonville, New York City, the Black Belt) in a story of a mulatto caught between two opposing racial identities. The novel is an epic journey (emotionally and physically) of this African-American, who is light enough to "pass" into the white American dominating the turn-of-the century. The Ex-Coloured Man's personal struggles to reconcile his true private self with his public self in a divided and prejudiced society makes this novel an emotional and enlightening read. Johnson takes up the issue of WEB DuBois's double-consciousness, and gives it life in the form of this ambivalent protagonist.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Soul-Stirring, June 18, 1999

By	Nadyne G. Morgan "dynethebest" (Keller, TX (for now)) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (Paperback)

This is not the type of book that will grab you from the beginning and hold you until the end. This is the kind of book that when you sit down to think about it, you'll find that you are, in some instances, like the Ex-Coloured Man.

I had to read this piece for a class. Upon cracking the binding, I was not impressesd. But, as I got deeper into the story, I was captivated. This is the type of work that makes you look at your life and wonder how you would respond in the same situations (and how you had responded in the past). While Johnson didn't give you dramatic build up that writers of today give, he gave an opportuinty for individual soul exploration. I believe that was the point he was trying to make.

"Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured Man" was not the greatest work ever written, but is was one of the most thought-provoking and challenging.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Place on your list of books to read in this lifetime., September 6, 2006

By	ALEXINE L. MARTIN "Maryland's favorite real e... (Washington DC and Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I found this book on the bottom shelf in my college bookcase. From the first chapter, I found myself on an old, winding, rollercoaster. James Weldon lived a life in early to mid-twentieth century more filled with extraordinary adventures than many men today. The matter that he did so 'passing' as Caucasian isn't just a coincidence. Character is what matters. . .as a reader should derive from his story; however, the matter of race devoured Weldon's every chance at completing each sweet piece of life-pie.

I cannot say more to those who never understood a Black man than to read...this...book!! You will be enlightened further than you can now imagine.