Johnson's novel is written as the memoir of a nameless, light-skinned Black man who, after witnessing a lynching, chooses to live as white. His story moves from a Connecticut childhood through work as a cigar maker, a ragtime pianist in New York, and travel in Europe, always circling the talent and the heritage he has renounced. Published anonymously in 1912 and long mistaken for a true autobiography, it is a founding text of the African American novel.
Author: James Weldon Johnson · Original publisher: Sherman, French & Company (Boston), 1912 — published anonymously; reissued under Johnson's name by Alfred A. Knopf, 1927
