![]() ![]() Johnson's text is an example of a roman à clef. It is drawn from the lives of people Johnson knew and from events in his life. Knopf, an influential firm that published many Harlem Renaissance writers, and Johnson was credited as the author.ĭespite the title, the book is a novel. It was republished in 1927, with some minor changes of phraseology, by Alfred A. The book's initial public reception was poor. He wrote openly about issues of race and discrimination that were not common then in literature. He decided to publish it anonymously because he was uncertain how the potentially controversial book would affect his diplomatic career. Johnson originally published The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man anonymously in 1912, via the small Boston publisher Sherman, French, & Company. He lives through a variety of experiences, including witnessing a lynching, that convince him to "pass" as white to secure his safety and advancement, but he feels as if he has given up his dream of "glorifying" the black race by composing ragtime music. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912/1927) by James Weldon Johnson is the fictional account of a young biracial man, referred to only as the "Ex-Colored Man," living in post- Reconstruction era America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ![]()
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