Richard Wright (1908-1960) is one of the most influential African American writers of the last century. His major works include the story collection Uncle Tom's Children, the novel Native Son, and the autobiography Black Boy/American Hunger.
 
Malcolm Wright, Richard Wright's grandson, is a filmmaker and conservationist.

Continues Library of America's important work in reissuing unredacted versions of Wright's books.Previously unpublished novel by Richard Wright, written at the height of his creative powers.The novel's depiction of police brutality against a black man, arrested for a crime he did not commit, is powerful and timely.The novel is accompanied by a previously unpublished essay by Richard Wright, in which the author explains why The Man Who Lived Underground meant more to him than his other novels.Written a decade before Ellison's Invisible Man (1952), it bears interesting resemblances to the most famous twentieth-century novel by an African American.

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A major literary event: an explosive, previously unpublished novel about race and police violence by the legendary author of Native Son and Black Boy

Fred Daniels, a Black man, is picked up by the police after a brutal double murder and tortured until he confesses to a crime he did not commit. After signing a confession, he escapes from custody and flees into the city s sewer system.
 
This is the devastating premise of this scorching novel, a masterpiece that Richard Wright was unable to publish in his lifetime. Written between his landmark books Native Son (1940) and Black Boy (1945), at the height of his creative powers, it would eventually see publication only in drastically condensed and truncated form in the posthumous collection Eight Men (1961).
 
Now, for the first time, by special arrangement with the author's estate, the full text of this incendiary novel about race and violence in America, the work that meant more to Wright than any other ( I have never written anything in my life that stemmed more from sheer inspiration ), is published in the form that he intended, complete with his companion essay, Memories of My Grandmother. Malcolm Wright, the author s grandson, contributes an afterword.