The Literary Career In Richard Wright's Black Boy

The beginning of Mathabane’s literary career sparked a hunger when he came across a book titled “Black Boy, Richard Wright’s searing autobiography” in the Quincy College library. (Mathabane 3-78) This led him to read just about all the books written by black authors. In turn, this spark stood dimly lit until he arrived at Dowling College. He “volunteered to become the first black editor of the college newspaper, The Lion’s Voice.” (Mathabane 3-103)He started out alone, writing the whole paper himself though he had people help with the printing. Eventually a couple of students joined with him in writing the paper. Still toiling with what he wanted to do after graduation, he came upon a man named John Rather, who suggested attending the newspaper recruitment fair in
He finished writing 350 pages of his book and then had to edit the information to be more explanatory. Eventually he rewrote his story. “Kaffir Boy” entered publication and circulation with Mathabane going on a publicity tour. Interviews and appearance on talk’s shows happened next. Despite this, sales were poor and reviews were not glowing. In fact, many classrooms banned the book. Life came back to the book when Reader’s Digest Condensed Books was interested which prompted New American Library to buy the rights also. In July 1986, sales of his book increased again when an article he wrote appeared in People magazine. His appearance on the Oprah show spawned his book as “a nationwide best-seller…reaching third place on The New York Time best seller list…with more than 200,000 copies sold.”(Mathabane 3-279) It rose to No. 1 on the Washington Post bestsellers list.”(Facebook) The book also won the Christopher Award in 1986 and achieved status as one of the finalists for the 1987 Robert Kennedy Memorial Award.”(Mathabane 3-279) Publication went internationally including several languages except it was not published in South