Synopsis
Daddy Was a Number Runner by Meriwether, Louise. 8vo.
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Review
For Francie, childhood in 1930s Harlem means having one brother in the gangs and another who gives up his dream of being a chemist because "how many firms gonna hire a black chemist?" It's having a big, beautiful father who can't find legal work and a mother who defies her husband and hires out as domestic labor in order to keep the family from starving. Childhood for Francie is having household chores like attaching the jumper to get free electricity and facing the disdain of Mrs. Burnett when she buys groceries from her on credit. It's avoiding the groping hands of the butcher, the baker and the fat little white man who sits next to her in the theater, or maybe not avoiding them for the extra meat, rolls, or dime they might offer. It means reading "smutty" comic books and walking down 118th street where the prostitutes work, but not knowing what is happening when her period starts. Francie's Harlem is a powerful, pent-up place, where dreams and good people are changed and destroyed, a neighborhood with strength and beauty, love and friendship, all trying to grow like plants without soil or water. And for Francie, during the year she turns from twelve to thirteen, living in Harlem means exchanging her longing for the white-hatted cowboy in the movies for a feeling of kinship with the Indians and a realization of what it means to be black and female in the United States. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
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Daddy Was a Number Runner
Seller: ThriftBooksVintage, Tukwila, WA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardcover. Condition: Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Fair. Dust jacket in acceptable condition. Shelf and handling wear to cover and binding, with general signs of previous use. Binding and pages are intact. All pages are free from any markings. Scuffing and bumping visible to boards. Secure packaging for safe delivery. Seller Inventory # 1874011623
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Daddy Was a Number [Numbers] Runner (First Edition)
Published by
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 1970
ISBN 10: 0131971034
ISBN 13: 9780131971035
Used
Hardcover
First Edition
Seller: Royal Books, Inc., ABAA, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
First Edition. First Edition. Louise Meriwether's important first book, a semi-autobiographical novel about a young Black girl growing up in 1930s Harlem. About Near Fine in a Very Good plus dust jacket. Page edges faintly foxed. Jacket faintly foxed on the top edge of the front flap, with a small bruise on the top right corner of the front panel. Seller Inventory # 163018