Get a FREE Books of the Moment  sampler!
Before you go...
Check Out These
21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
See the List
Best Seller
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside | Teacher’s Guide

Read An Excerpt
Read An Excerpt

A Raisin in the Sun

By Lorraine Hansberry

By Lorraine Hansberry

By Lorraine Hansberry
Introduction by Robert Nemiroff

By Lorraine Hansberry
Introduction by Robert Nemiroff

By Lorraine Hansberry

By Lorraine Hansberry

Category: Classics

Read An Excerpt

Look Inside | Teacher’s Guide

Read An Excerpt

Teacher’s Guide

Read An Excerpt

Teacher’s Guide

Mass Market Paperback $7.95

Nov 29, 2004 | 160 Pages

Hardcover $15.95

Aug 22, 1995 | 176 Pages

Ebook $5.99

Nov 02, 2011 | 160 Pages

All Formats
+

    Paperback
    –

    Hardcover
    +

    • Hardcover $15.95

      Aug 22, 1995 | 176 Pages

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook $5.99

      Nov 02, 2011 | 160 Pages

    Buy the Ebook:

    About A Raisin in the Sun

    When it was first produced in 1959, A Raisin in the Sun was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for that season and hailed as a watershed in American drama. A pioneering work by an African-American playwright, the play was a radically new representation of black life. "A play that changed American theater forever."–The New York Times.

    About A Raisin in the Sun

    "Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

    Indeed Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America–and changed American theater forever.  The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

    "The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.  "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."  This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry’s landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.

    About A Raisin in the Sun

    "Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.

    Indeed Lorraine Hansberry’s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of black America–and changed American theater forever.  The play’s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes’s poem "Harlem," which warns that a dream deferred might "dry up/like a raisin in the sun."

    "The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun," said The New York Times.  "It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic."  This Modern Library edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry’s landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.

    Also by Lorraine Hansberry

    The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    A Raisin in the Sun
    See all books by Lorraine Hansberry

    Also by Lorraine Hansberry

    The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    A Raisin in the Sun
    See all books by Lorraine Hansberry

    Also by Lorraine Hansberry

    The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays
    To Be Young, Gifted and Black
    A Raisin in the Sun
    See all books by Lorraine Hansberry

    About Lorraine Hansberry

    Lorraine Hansberry, at twenty-nine, became the youngest American, the fifth woman, and the first black playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best Play of the Year. Her A Raisin in the Sun has since been published… More about Lorraine Hansberry

    About Lorraine Hansberry

    Lorraine Hansberry, at twenty-nine, became the youngest American, the fifth woman, and the first black playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best Play of the Year. Her A Raisin in the Sun has since been published… More about Lorraine Hansberry

    About Lorraine Hansberry

    Lorraine Hansberry, at twenty-nine, became the youngest American, the fifth woman, and the first black playwright to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the Best Play of the Year. Her A Raisin in the Sun has since been published… More about Lorraine Hansberry

    Product Details

    Mass Market Paperback | $7.95
    Published by Vintage
    Nov 29, 2004 | 160 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-7/8 | ISBN 9780679755333

    Hardcover | $15.95
    Published by Modern Library
    Aug 22, 1995 | 176 Pages | 4-11/16 x 7-1/4 | ISBN 9780679601722

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Vintage
    Nov 02, 2011 | 160 Pages | ISBN 9780307807441

    People Who Read A Raisin in the Sun Also Read

    ‹ ›
    The Joy Luck Club
    Little Women
    The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
    The Phantom of the Opera
    Doctor Faustus
    Celestina
    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    Of Mice and Men
    Faust
    Lysistrata
    Uncle Tom's Cabin
    Tales from Shakespeare
    Life Is a Dream
    Beloved
    Twelve Angry Men
    Four Major Plays, Volume I
    Three Revenge Tragedies
    Volpone and Other Plays
    R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
    Medea and Other Plays
    Pygmalion
    Plays
    The Miser and Other Plays
    Mary Stuart
    Six Characters in Search of an Author
    Death of a Salesman
    The Merchant of Venice
    Invisible Man
    The Odyssey
    The Aeneid
    Death Comes for the Archbishop
    Plays and Fragments
    Peter Pan
    The Beggar's Opera
    Greek Drama
    Miserables, Les
    The Portable James Joyce
    The Comedies
    Four Tragedies and Octavia
    The Pot of Gold and Other Plays
    The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro
    Three Plays
    The Oresteian Trilogy
    Cyrano De Bergerac
    The Theban Plays

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Praise

    “A beautiful, lovable play. It is affectionately human, funny and touching. . . . A work of theatrical magic in which the usual barrier between audience and stage disappears.”
    John Chapman, New York News

    “An honest, intelligible, and moving experience.”
    Walter Kerr, New York Herald Tribune

    “Miss Hansberry has etched her characters with understanding, and told her story with dramatic impact. She has a keen sense of humor, an ear for accurate speech and compassion for people.”
    Robert Coleman, New York Mirror

    “A Raisin in the Sun has vigor as well as veracity.”
    Brooks Atkinson, New York Times

    “It is honest drama, catching up real people. . . . It will make you proud of human beings.”
    Frank Aston, New York World-Telegram & Sun

    “A wonderfully emotional evening.”
    John McClain, New York Journal American

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Books for Better Living

    Inspiration for the best you

    Brightly

    Reading is just the beginning
    TASTE img

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    Signature

    Making Well-Read Sense of the World

    LitFlash

    The eBooks you want at the lowest prices

    Read it Forward

    Read it first. Pass it on!
    First to Read

    First to Read

    Early access to Penguin Random House’s hottest new titles
    Unbound Worlds

    Unbound Worlds

    Exploring the science fiction and fantasy universe