Black April: A Novel - Hardcover

Peterkin, Julia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0910220425 ISBN 13: 9780910220422

Publisher: Norman Berg

Synopsis

Julia Peterkin pioneered in demonstrating the literary potential for serious depictions of the African American experience. Rejecting the prevailing sentimental stereotypes of her times, she portrayed her black characters with sympathy and understanding, endowing them with the full dimensions of human consciousness. In these novels and stories, she tapped the richness of rural southern black culture and oral traditions to capture the conflicting realities in an African American community and to reveal a grace and courage worthy of black pride.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Plowing, hog-killing, revival meetings, and conjure bags - evidence of a world dominated by hard work, religion, and magic - drive the plot of Julia Peterkin's powerful first novel, Black April, first published in 1927. In this book, the classic theme of a proud man confronting his own mortality and the tragic consequences of human desire are played out against the rituals of black country life. "The figure of Black April, the foreman of Blue Brook Plantation, who gives the book its title, is of the heroic, almost grandiose, mold of the legendary protagonists of fiction", the New York Times wrote in an early review.

About the Author:

Julia Peterkin (1880-1961) was the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and, with photographer Doris Ulmann, a nonfiction collection of essays entitled "Roll, Jordan, Roll." She was the first South Carolinian to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

About this edition

• Publisher: Norman Berg
• ISBN 10: 0910220425
• ISBN 13: 9780910220422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 315