Black No More - Paperback

by George S. Schuyler (Author), Danzy Senna (Introduction by)

For fans of the Oscar-winning film American Fiction the landmark comic satire that asks, "What would happen if all black people in America turned white?"--featuring an introduction by Danzy Senna, the bestselling author of Caucasia and Colored Television

A Penguin Classic

It's New Year's Day 1933 in New York City, and Max Disher, a young black man, has just found out that a certain Dr. Junius Crookman has discovered a mysterious process that allows people to bleach their skin white--a new way to "solve the American race problem." Max leaps at the opportunity, and after a brief stay at the Crookman Sanitarium, he becomes Matthew Fisher, a white man who is able to attain everything he has ever wanted: money, power, good liquor, and the white woman who rejected him when he was black.

Lampooning myths of white supremacy and racial purity and caricaturing prominent African American leaders like W. E. B. Du Bois, Madam C. J. Walker, and Marcus Garvey, Black No More is a masterwork of speculative fiction and a hilarious satire of America's obsession with race.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Author Biography

George S. Schuyler (1895-1977), a satirist, critic, and eminent African American journalist of the Harlem Renaissance, was born in Providence, Rhode Island. After a seven-year stint in the army, he moved to New York City, where he joined the staff of The Messenger, the official magazine of the Friends of Negro Freedom, a black socialist group. His writing for The Messenger caught the eye of H. L. Mencken, who became a mentor figure to Schuyler; Schuyler soon began writing for Mencken's The American Mercury, as well as The Nation, The Washington Post, and The Pittsburgh Courier, black America's most influential newspaper. He became the first black journalist to attain national prominence and was known for his controversial opinions. In addition to Black No More, Schuyler published the novels Slaves Today and Black Empire (originally as a serial in The Pittsburgh Courier) as well as several novellas and an autobiography.

Danzy Senna (introduction) is the author of the novels Colored Television, New People, Symptomatic, and Caucasia, a national bestseller that won the Stephen Crane Award for Best New Fiction and the American Library Association's Alex Award and was translated into nearly a dozen languages. A recipient of the Whiting Writers Award, Senna is also the author of the memoir Where Did You Sleep Last Night? and the story collection You Are Free. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a professor of English at the University of Southern California.