William L. Andrews is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Douglas Taylor is Assistant Professor of English and African American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

• Introduction Interview 1: Charles J. Rolo: This, Too, Is America Contemporary Critical Responses 2: W.E.B. Du Bois: Richard Wright Looks Back: Harsh, Forbidding Memories of Negro Childhood and Youth 3: Lionel Trilling: A Tragic Situation 4: Mary McCarthy: Portrait of a Typical Negro? 5: Ralph Ellison: Richard Wright's Blues Scholarly and Critical Assessments 6: Janice Thaddeus: The Metamorphosis of Richard Wright's Black Boy 7: Charles T. Davis: From Experience to Eloquence: Richard Wright's Black Boy as Art 8: Robert B. Stepto: Literacy and Assent: Richard Wright's Black Boy 9: John O. Hodges: An Apprenticeship to Life and Art: Narrative Design in Wright's Black Boy 10: Yoshinobu Hakutani: Creation of the Self in Richard Wright's Black Boy 11: Jennifer H. Poulos: "Shouting Curses": The Politics of "Bad" Language in Richard Wright's Black Boy 12: Timothy Adams: Richard Wright: "Wearing the Mask" 13: Horace A. Porter: The Horror and the Glory: Richard Wright's Portrait of the Artist in Black Boy and American Hunger Suggested Reading