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{ "item_title" : "Daddy Was a Number Runner", "item_author" : [" Louise Meriwether", "James Baldwin "], "item_description" : "This modern classic is a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood in 1930s Harlem--with a foreword by James Baldwin (Publishers Weekly). Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it's both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family. The beloved daddy of the title indeed becomes a number runner when he is unable to find legal work, and while one of Francie's brothers dreams of becoming a chemist, the other is already in a gang. Francie is a dreamer, too, but there are risks in everything from going to the movies to walking down the block, and her pragmatism eventually outweighs her hope; We was all poor and black and apt to stay that way, and that was that. First published in 1970, Daddy Was a Number Runner is one of the seminal novels of the black experience in America. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it a most important novel.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/55/861/442/1558614427_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "16.95", "online_price" : "16.95", "our_price" : "16.95", "club_price" : "16.95", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }
Daddy Was a Number Runner|Louise Meriwether
Daddy Was a Number Runner
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Overview

This modern classic is "a tough, tender, bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood" in 1930s Harlem--with a foreword by James Baldwin (Publishers Weekly).

Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family, and it's both a place of refuge and the source of untold dangers for her and her poor, working class family. The beloved "daddy" of the title indeed becomes a number runner when he is unable to find legal work, and while one of Francie's brothers dreams of becoming a chemist, the other is already in a gang. Francie is a dreamer, too, but there are risks in everything from going to the movies to walking down the block, and her pragmatism eventually outweighs her hope; "We was all poor and black and apt to stay that way, and that was that."

First published in 1970, Daddy Was a Number Runner is one of the seminal novels of the black experience in America. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it "a most important novel."

Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781558614420
  • ISBN-10: 1558614427
  • Publisher: Feminist Press
  • Publish Date: December 2002
  • Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.65 pounds
  • Page Count: 240

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