Description

This modern classic is a tough tender bitter novel of a black girl struggling towards womanhood in 1930s Harlemwith a foreword by James Baldwin Publishers Weekly

Depressionera Harlem is home for twelveyearold Francie Coffin and her family and its 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 Francies 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