Appealing to the Middlebrow Reader: Changes Made to Richard Wright\u27s Black Boy

This thesis focuses on Richard Wright\u27s autobiography Black Boy (American Hunger) A Record of Childhood and Youth. The book\u27s original format underwent a couple of major changes in order to be accepted by The Book-of-the-Month Club, which were the elimination of the entire second half dealing with Wright\u27s time in the North and the rewriting of the end of the first half in order to give closure to the shortened book. In my thesis, I will discuss these changes in detail and explain how these changes undermined Wright\u27s original intentions. Furthermore, I will show how The Book-of-the-Month- Club\u27s influence affected the many readers of Wright\u27s book