Daddy Was a Number Runner

First edition
Author	Louise Meriwether
Country	United States
Language	English
Published	1970 (Prentice Hall)
Followed by	The Freedom Ship of Robert Smalls

Daddy Was a Number Runner is the first novel by Louise Meriwether. It was published by Prentice Hall, with a foreword by James Baldwin, in 1970, and is now considered a modern classic.^[1] It depicts a poor black family in Harlem during the Great Depression in the first half of the 20th century, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old African-American girl who has one brother who wants to be a chemist and another who is a gang member.^[2][3]

Reception

Paule Marshall said of the book:

greatest achievement lies in the sense of black life that it conveys: vitality and force behind the despair. It celebrates the positive values behind the black experience: the tenderness and love that often lie underneath the abrasive surfaces of relationships … the humor that has long been an important part of the black survival kit, and the heroism of ordinary folk … a most important novel.^[4]

It was an Essence Book Club Choice in December 2002.

References

Further reading

• Demirtürk, E. Lâle, "Writing the Urban Discourse into the Black Ghetto Imaginary: Louise Meriwether's 'Daddy Was a Number Runner'", Southern Literary Journal, Autumn 2006, Vol. 39 Issue 1, p. 71.

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