The cover page is adapted from The Blacker the Berry, a painting completed circa 1929 by Aaron Douglas. The cover and title pages feature the League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by The League of Moveable Type. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Douglas_(artist)www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/
The Blacker the Berry
Chapters (7)
- Dedication 0:00
- Epigraph 0:04
- Part I: Emma Lou 0:17
- Part II: Harlem 1:31:09
- Part III: Alva 2:19:04
- Part IV: Rent Party 3:20:37
- Part V: Pyrrhic Victory 4:42:48
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The Blacker the Berry, Wallace Thurman’s debut novel, follows the life of Emma Lou, a dark-skinned young woman from Boise, as she graduates high school and enters adult life as a college student. After being the target of colorist prejudice from her fellow African-American students at the University of Southern California, Emma Lou decides to drop out and move to Harlem—where she’s swept into a torrid love affair that only deepens her sense of color-consciousness.
Written and set during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, The Blacker the Berry was one of the first African-American novels to address the themes of colorism and homosexuality. It remains one of the canonical novels of the Harlem Renaissance.