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Published in 1952 as "Cast the First Stone", this is Chester Himes's first autobiographical novel. It is a sardonic tale of an African-American's debasement and transfiguration in an American penitentiary.

First published in 1962, this novel is one of the most lyrical and authentic portraits of a jazz musician ever published. Born into violence, in the midst of a destructive tornado that flattens sections of East St. Louis, Raymond Douglas overcomes obstacles of family and race to become a jazz trumpeter whose music touches greatness. Rave praise for the Old School Books Series: "One of the most exciting literary revival series since the rediscovery of Jim Thompson's novels..." --Digby Diehl, Playboy "If you can't get enough of Shaft, Foxy Brown (the original one) or Dolemite, then check Old School Books' new series of pulp novels featuring the boldest African-American authors of our time. These new cultural artifacts are fast-paced and hard. They take the brutality and ruin of the urban Black landscape and transform them into art. Each character in the series is searching for "old school" wisdom and never loses sight of the racial, political, and emotional context from which they came."--The Source "My endorsement of Old School Books is a hundred percent. This is the kind of publishing program that shows serious readers that publishing can still be more than just a business. This is a cultural service of the highest order. W.W. Norton and Company deserves a standing ovation. Congratulations."--Clarence Major, University of California, Davis "Glad to see that at least one publisher isn't afflicted with the bottom-line fever, the republishing of these old time classics proves that Norton is devoted to quality publishing. I'm especially glad to see John A. Williams' The Angry Ones used. It's as fresh as the day it was written."--Ishmael Reed, University of California, Berkeley "As of late, members of the pulp pantheon are finding themselves being revised by Hollywood, scrutinized by serious academics, and canonized by the Library of America, though they never completely went out of fashion. But a little-known subgenre of pulp that faded from public view will soon be getting its second chance when Norton's Old School Books, a series of paperback reprint by black pulp novelists, hit bookstores."--Village Voice Literary Supplement

Black! brings together three short novels by Clarence Cooper, Jr., a rediscovered genius of African-American writing. "The Dark Messenger" is a short, sizzling novel in which a reporter for a black newspaper discovers that truth and justice are no match for the next handout from the corrupt powers that be. "Yet Prices Follow" and "Yet We Many" are both sardonic crime novellas set in the worlds of the numbers racket and Black Muslims, respectively. All of them demonstrate the hard-edged, ultra-hip style of realism that was Clarence Cooper's trademark.

This streetwise novel chronicles the rise and fall of Lonnie Jack, a twenty-six-year-old Vietnam veteran and mid-level heroin dealer itching to knock the powerful Willis McDaniel off his perch as the number-one drug kingpin. It plunges the reader into the subculture of addicts, dealers, and corrupt cops as Lonnie Jack's bold and methodical challenge builds to a frightening climax.