A Raisin in the Sun
Random House Publishing Group · Print & ebook · August 22, 1995
A Plays pick for readers exploring A Raisin in the Sun.
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- Who it’s for
- A landmark drama whose portrayal of Black life and deferred hopes still carries force onstage.
- Themes
- Family aspirations, Working-class life, Deferred dreams
- Genres
- African American Plays, American Plays, Plays by Women
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Start with this bookAbout this book
"Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America--and changed American theater forever.
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The play's title comes from a line in Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun." "The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times. "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic." This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.
Theater With Weight
A landmark drama whose portrayal of Black life and deferred hopes still carries force onstage.
Come here for
- A working-class family’s hopes and aspirations
- A landmark in American theater
Expect
- The fully restored, uncut play
- An introduction by Robert Nemiroff
Where it sits
| African American Plays | 96% |
|---|---|
| American Plays | 64% |
| Plays by Women | 45% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- American Plays
- African American Plays
- Plays by Women
- Authors
- Lorraine Hansberry
- Publisher
- Random House Publishing Group
- Published
- August 22, 1995
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Family aspirations · Working-class life · Deferred dreams
- Reading lane
- American Plays