Claude Brown Bücher

Manchild in the Promised Landis indeed one of the most remarkable autobiographies of our time. This thinly fictionalized account of Claude Brown's childhood as a hardened, streetwise criminal trying to survive the toughest streets of Harlem has been heralded as the definitive account of everyday life for the first generation of African Americans raised in the Northern ghettos of the 1940s and 1950s. When the book was first published in 1965, it was praised for its realistic portrayal of Harlem - the children, young people, hardworking parents; the hustlers, drug dealers, prostitutes, and numbers runners; the police; the violence, sex, and humour. The book continues to resonate generations later, not only because of its fierce and dignified anger, not only because the struggles of urban youth are as deeply felt today as they were in Brown's time, but also because the book is affirmative and inspiring. Here is the story about the one who "made it," the boy who kept landing on his feet and became a man.

Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, the narrative follows John Wright's transformation from a young corn likker maker in Kentucky to a Confederate soldier. After initial adventures in horse-trading and joining John Hunt Morgan's forces, he encounters notable figures like the James brothers and Quantrill. Following a series of captures and daring escapes, John's life takes a turn as he joins the circus, marries Mattie, becomes a marshal and judge, and navigates a tumultuous life marked by family and rivalry with Caleb Jones.