The Black Book
Date
Credits
- Ribik, Jack Designer
- Harris, Middleton Editor
- Levitt, Morris Editor
- Furman, Roger Editor
- Smith, Ernest Editor
- Morrison, Toni Editor
- Random House 5 Agency
Format
- Book 579
Type of Work
- Finished work 5123
Dimensions
Printed Pages
What if you could have the memories, and journals of your great great grandmother and father? Reading through and experiencing their joy and pain? This is what The Black Book is. This book starts off with a quote from Dr. Bill Cosby. In his introduction, he begins to use the phrase “I wish”, “I sure wish I’d had it when I was in school…I wish I’d had it when I went to the barbershop”. ‘It’ being The Black Book. The Black Book is an offering to other black people about the black experience in 1619 through 1940s America. It’s a scrapbook of African American ancestors documenting the pain, laughter, hope, and successes in the form of historic documents, artwork, obituaries, ads, photographs, sheet music, and more. It honors the past, showing us what America was like for African Americans.
This book was inspired by Morrison's dissatisfaction with “academic treatises that did not get at the heart and spirit behind the [black] culture (davidzwirner.com/exhibitions/2022/toni-morrisons-black-book). As the senior editor of Random House at the time, Morrison put together a team of black creatives to create this visual masterpiece. Her purpose was to create something that might last, to bear witness to the quality and variety of black life.
The Black Book was well recognized and covered by television, radio, local media, and newspapers (muse.jhu.edu/article/492401). It went on to be nominated for a 1975 National Book Award in the Contemporary Affairs category and received an award from the American Institute of Graphic Design. April 1974, The Black Book was number nine on The New York Times trade paperback bestseller list (proquest.com/docview/1924949197).
This book was printed in hardcover and paperback, described as an “eye-catching cover that echoed the design of a quilt”. The name is also fascinating, as it seems to be a play on words from the phrase black book, linked to the bible and a book of record keeping.
The Black Book is 198 pages, glue-bound paperback. Color photographic cover with white text. Mostly black and white, with one signature in full color.
