Contributions

  • Mary Helen Washington - Preface

Publication

1995 - Doubleday, USA

Language

English

Word Count

68,000 words, Guess

Page Count

272 pages

Physical Format

Hardcover

Identifiers

and 3 more
  • LibraryThing64792
  • Goodreads2326579
  • Open LibraryOL60602321M

Classifications

  • LCCPS3545.E82794 R53 1995

Description

The stories contained here are as American as jazz, and as wise and multifaceted as their writer. Dorothy West's metier is the unique crucible in which America places its black middle class, but her themes are universal: the daily misunderstandings between young and old, men and women, rich and poor that can lead to tragedy; and the ways in which bonds of family and community can bring us together, and tear us asunder. Dorothy West's autobiographical essays explore the poles of her remarkable life - from growing up black and middle-class in Boston to her near-mythic trip to Moscow in 1933 with Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance writers to life on her beloved Martha's Vineyard. They cohere into a beautiful and poignant memoir of a singular American life, a memoir that communicates with her short stories in a host of fertile ways. Taken as a whole, The Richer, The Poorer is a triumphant celebration of the life and work of one of America's genuine treasures.

First Sentence

It occurred to him, as he eased past the bulging knees of an Irish wash lady and forced an apologetic passage down the isle of the crowded car, that more than anything in all the world he wanted not to go home.

Subjects

Genres

  • Biography.
  • Fiction.

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