Nigger: An Autobiography by Dick Gregory

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Nigger
File:N*ggerGregory.jpg
First h/b edition
Author Dick Gregory, with Robert Lipsyte
Subject African American culture
Genre Autobiography
Publisher E.P. Dutton h/b
Pocket Books p/b
Publication date
 September 1964
Media type hardcover
Pages 209
Followed by Write me in! (1968)

The autobiography of comedian and social activist Dick Gregory, co-authored with Robert Lipsyte, nigger was originally published in September 1964 by E.P. Dutton, and has since 1965 been reprinted numerous times in an edition available through Pocket Books, altogether selling more than over one million copies to date.[1]

Origins

It was written during the American Civil Rights Movement. Gregory comments on his choice of title in the book's primary dedication, addressing his maternal ancestors,

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Dear Momma -- Wherever you are, if ever you hear the word "nigger" again, remember they are advertising my book.[2]

Table of contents

  • Not Poor, Just Broke
  • "...and they didn't even have what i wanted."
  • One Less Door

The book contains photographs of Gregory performing at the Village Gate; he and his brother (1942); his mother, Lucille; Gregory as a drummer at Southern Illinois University (1953); as an SIU sprinter and Outstanding Athlete of the Year (1953); with coach Leland Lingle (1954); with Sammy Davis, Jr. at Roberts Show Club, Chicago (1959); in a jail cell in Chicago; performing at the Hungry i, San Francisco (1963, shortly before the murder of Medgar Evars); at a voter registration rally, Greenwood, Mississippi (April 1963), among others.

Quotes

Addressing his maternal ancestors again,

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You didn't die a slave for nothing, Momma. You brought us up. You and all those Negro mothers who gave their kids the strength to go on, to take that thimble to the well while the whites were taking buckets. Those of us who weren't destroyed got stronger, got calluses on our souls. And now we're ready to change a system, a system where a white man can destroy a black man with a single word. Nigger.[this quote needs a citation]

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When we're through, Momma, there won't be any niggers any more.[this quote needs a citation]

Cover title

The original book cover stylizes the main title, "nigger", in all lower case, cursive writing. The title in its other appearances is otherwise formatted as most other books, either in all uppercase, or with normal book title capitalization.

Reception

The New York Times wrote, in its review,

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Powerful and ugly and beautiful...a moving story of a man who deeply wants a world without malice and hate and is doing something about it."[3]

The book has been the subject of critical commentary, particularly in reference to its use of the pejorative term as the title.[4][5] It remains one of his best known works.[6]

See also

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Nigger, Dick Gregory with Robert Lipsyte. New York: Pocket Books, 1965 (12th printing), Standard Book Number 671-7509
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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