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Daddy Was A Number Runner

Louise Meriwether

With a Foreword by James Baldwin

'Beautiful timeless and relevant' Jacqueline Woodson


'A most important novel' Paule Marshall

'A considerable achievement' James Baldwin

Depression-era Harlem is home for twelve-year-old Francie Coffin and her family and it's both a place of refuge and of danger. Her beloved father becomes a number runner when he is unable to find legal work and while one of Francie's brothers dreams of becoming a chemist the other is in a gang. Francie too is a dreamer but women in her neighbourhood have limited prospects either selling their bodies on the streets running poker games or having a baby every year. There are risks in everything from going to the movies to walking down the block.

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  • Classification : General & Literary Fiction
  • Pub Date : JUN 3, 2021
  • Imprint : Virago
  • Page Extent : 224
  • Binding : PB
  • ISBN : 9780349015927
  • Price : INR 599
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Louise Meriwether

Louise Meriwether is an American novelist, essayist, journalist, and activist. In 1970, she published her first and critically acclaimed book, Daddy Was a Number Runner (with an introduction by James Baldwin), using autobiographical elements about growing up in Harlem during the Depression and in the era after the Harlem Renaissance. She has since written short stories that have appeared in Antioch Review and Negro Digest, as well as biographies for children about historically important African Americans, including Robert Smalls, Daniel Hale Williams, and Rosa Parks. Meriwether has also taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Houston.

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