Walls of Jericho

The Walls of Jericho is a classic Black fiction novel that satirizes the walls people build around themselves, particularly color and class. It was first published in 1928 and includes a short story that revisits the characters during the Depression.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 224 pages
Publication date: 04 March 2021
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

The Walls of Jericho is a classic work of Black fiction, written by one of the legends of the Harlem Renaissance. When Fred Merrit, a Black lawyer, purchases a house in the most exclusive white neighborhood bordering Harlem, he hires the toughest removal firm in the area to help him get his belongings past the hostile neighbors. The removal men are Jinx Jenkins and Bubber Brown, who make the move anything but straightforward.

This hilarious satire of jazz-age Harlem derides the walls people build around themselves, particularly color and class. Through their reactions to Merrit and to one another, the characters provide an invaluable view of the social and philosophical scene of the times.

First published in 1928, The Walls of Jericho is the first novel by Rudolph Fisher, author of The Conjure-Man Dies, whom Langston Hughes called "the wittiest of the Harlem Renaissance writers, whose tongue was flavored with the sharpest and saltiest humor." This new edition includes Fisher's short story "One Month's Wages," which revisits Jinx and Bubber during the Depression when, down on their luck, one seeks to win money by gambling, the other by taking a job in a mortuary.

Weight: 166g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780008444358