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x , - ~ . eet ee C. . Rite ne WRIGHT jst nn the author cf one of the most wioery read and hotiy debated novels of recent years, “Native Bon,” an acknowledged leader of his race. But the way was jong and the road waa rocky. Not very, mahy years ago he was just “a black boy in Missisalppi,” which means few men in the world have Begun life under a burden of graver handicaps or faced more difficult obstacles. That he has gone #0 far, sccom- plished ac much, en- titles Mr. Wright to an honored rank among that tradition- ally American select group, the “self-made men.” His success story does him great credit. The troubles he knew in hia child- hood and youth were terrible, the wounds he received deep. He carries indelible acara Ry and still burns with Richard Wright bitter fury. The life he knew as a child is net over, It has not changed. Hundreds of thou- sands of other little black boys are enduring ft today. Such a Ufe is usually completely outside the comprehension of white Americans, elther Southern or Northern. But th who care to can now share it, in Mr. Wright's Slack Boy; A Record of Childhood and Yeouth.”* . This is a story from America’s own lower depths. No nostalgic memories of childhood are these, no sentimental yearnings for Innocent years when the hills were so much higher, Mr. Wright's childhood was an obacene and monstrous nightmare, a malign inferno that might well haye destroyed him utterly. He survived, but not unscathed. “Black Boy” is not the work of an objective artist or of an open mind. It could not have been. The neuroses, the over- emphasis, the lack of balance and the emotion Fecollected in turmoil are the bitter fruit of an old injustice. Shows Harsh Dramatic Power Mr. Wright i this explosive autobiography does not suggest any constructive means for improving the lot of the Negro in this country. Like Lillian Smith, he can omty display suffer- ing and cruelty with harsh dramatic power, he . Can-only arouse anger and sympathy. If enough much books are written, if enough millions of people read them, maybe, some day, in the full- neas of time, there will be a greater understand- ing and a more true democracy. Richard Wright grew up in the slums of Mem- ed * *BLACK- BOY: 4 Record of Chtidhood and Youth. By Richard Wright. 228 pages. Harper. $2.60. me JE Pee. ™ H SOMAR 24 19 ALL INFORMATION CONTAINED eUNCLASSIED 7” DATE £.aS:7/ BY phis and in the rurel slums ¢_ ......080 ana of Mississippi nesr Jackson. His father deserted his mother, so the poverty he knew was double the usual lot. The twe dominant influences of his childhood were hunger and fear, a gnawing hunger that kept him weak and half-starved and a fear that grew and multiplied and filled his entire life. He feared his mother's anger, the whippings of hia uncles and aunts, the abuse of other children, ghosts, white men with their in- explicable and capricious crusities, fear itself. Terror was his compenion night and day, violence the norm of ali experience. Fou! language and foul habits, ignorance and superstition, primitive religious fanaticism surrounded him on all sides. The proud, sensitive, intelligent chikd looked up from below at a grotesque, outrageous world. Some of the evils he knew were caused by poverty and ignorance alone and would not have been much different in Ireland or Iran. But even these evils were intensified Dy the shibd- boleth of color and many others were caused by race alone. Mr. Wright's uncle was murdered by a white man and no one dared even to protest. A boyhood acquaintance was lynched. He learned to be servile and obsequious, to say “air” to drunken and contemptible white men, to con- ceal his thoughts and emotions beneath a mask of humble good humor and deference. Not to do po, to forget the “sir” or the “mister,” to aspire to learn a akilled trade, to show resent- ment of gneers, condescension and abuse, was to invite “trouble.” And trouble could mean death, Author Distorts Bleak Story “Biack Boy” only takes Mr. Wright into his late teens when he escaped to Chicago. His ex- periences there and in radical politics will doubt- leas be material for another book. It could con- ceivably be an intellectually more interesting book, one more concerned with thought and ideas. But it could hardly be a more emotionally dread- ful one. Part of the raw shock of “Black Boy” fg caused by Mr. Wright's exceasive determina- tion to omit nothing, to emphasize mere filth. This springs from a lack of artistic discrimina- tion and selectivity. He has not added to bleak tragedy of his story; he has only dis it and confused it with such material. Tt ia also obvious in reading “Black Boy,” Mr, Wright admits it, that his is not » typical story. He felt isolated from Negroes as well az from whites; other Negroes resented their lot but did not feel at all so acutely as he did. Per- haps with the Bindsight of the years in which he has brooded and with a natural literary in- atinct to capitalize and dramatize his emotions Mr. Wright has exaggerated his sufferings. It would be only human if he had. “Black Boy” has bttle subtlety, Uttle light and shade, no restraint. It is written in a continu- ously strained and feverish manner. It is over- written. But it is powerful, moving and horrify- ing. It is certain to be extrasegenti; praised and roundly condemned. It will be widely read. This is Cm a ee hae a ad eet pur f ~. OF D ngee LIL ALY: i“ fp ORDED- NOT REC clipping from Fa Be paze ye/ of the New York Times for vere i ee Clipped at the Seat of Government. - “S