Charles (Stevenson) Wright.
 
Farrar, Strauss and Giroux: 1973. First edition. Hardcover in dust jacket. Near fine. 
 
Either a fictive memoir or an autobiographical novel, concerning encounters with poverty, drug addiction, prostitution, venereal disease, murder, bureaucratic indifference, race riots, frustrated rage, and a variety of ways of loving. A favorite of James Baldwin's. Essential reading on underground black culture in 1970's New York.
 
“The young protest, riot. Their elders bite their lips, inhale anger, or flaunt their power. Nailed between two worlds, I try to stay stoned, clang like a bell in a small tower, comforted with the knowledge that I'm moving on.”