Yesterday Will Make You Cry / Edition 1

by Chester Himes, Melvin Van Peebles, Marc Gerald, Samuel Blumenfeld

Overview

“There could not be a fitter time or place for the publication of this great prison novel than today’s United States.” —H. Bruce Franklin, The Nation

A classic restored-the complete and unexpurgated text of a great African-American writer's brutal and lyrical novel of prison life. First published in reduced and bowdlerized form in 1952 as Cast the First Stone, Yesterday Will Make You Cry was Chester Himes's first, most powerful, and autobiographical novel. This Old School Books edition presents it for the first time precisely as Himes wrote it, a sardonic masterpiece of debasement and transfiguration in an American penitentiary and one of his most enduring literary achievements.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393318296
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/17/1999
Series:	Old School Books Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	930L (what's this?)

About the Author

After arriving on the American literary scene with novels of scathing social protest like If He Hollers Let Him Go and The Lonely Crusade, Chester Himes created a pioneering pair of dangerously charming African-American sleuths, Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson, who attempt to maintain some kind of order in a series of violent and funny page-turners.

Melvin Van Peebles (b. 1932) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and composer.

Marc Gerald was the managing editor for True Detective and a writer for America's Most Wanted.

Editorial Reviews

The book's strengths lie in Himes's unflinching ability to stare down terrible truths and his finely detailed portrayal of men in conditions of great adversity. . . . Rage tempered with compassion is the backbone of this story -- and what makes it eminently worth reading. -- New York Times

Peter Bricklebank