A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay (Mass Market Paperback)

Lorraine Hansberry

ISBN 10: 0451183886 / ISBN 13: 9780451183880

Published by Signet Book, 1995

About this Item

Mass Market Paperback. The Unfilmed Original Screenplay of an American classic. This is a landmark volume of the epic, original film script written by Lorraine Hansberry, adapted from her stage play. But movie audiences did not know that nearly a third of her powerful screenplay had been cut. This edition restores all of these deletions and delivers the screenplay that is true to Hansberry's vision. This landmark volume brings readers an epic, eloquent work—the only edition available of the original script Lorraine Hansberry wrote to transform her incomparable stage play into film. This edition restores all deletions and brings readers the complete screenplay. Commentary by Spike Lee. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780451183880

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Raisin in the Sun: The Unfilmed Original Screenplay (Mass Market Paperback)
• Publisher: Signet Book
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0451183886
• ISBN 13: 9780451183880
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Under the editorship of the late Robert Nemiroff, with a provocative and thoughtful introduction by preeminent African-American scholar Margaret B. Wilkerson and a commentary by Spike Lee, this completely restored screenplay is the accurate and authoritative edition of Lorraine Hansberry's script and a testament to her unparalled accomplishment as a Black artist.

The 1961 film version of A Raisin in the Sun, with a screenplay by the author, Lorraine Hansberry, won an award at the Cannes Film Festival even though one-third of the actual screenplay Hansberry had written had been cut out. The film did essentially bring Hansberry's extraordinary play to the screen, but it failed to fulfill her cinematic vision.

Now, with this landmark edition of Lorraine Hansberry's original script for the movie of A Raisin in the Sun that audiences never viewed, readers have at hand an epic, eloquent work capturing not only the life and dreams of a Black family, but the Chicago--and the society--that surround and shape them.

Important changes in dialogue and exterior shots, a stunning shift of focus to her male protagonist, and a dramatic rewriting of the final scene show us an artist who understood and used the cinematic medium to transform a stage play into a different art form--a profound and powerful film.

About the Author

Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) electrified the theatrical world with her first play, A Raisin in the Sun, which won the New York Critics Circle Award for the 1958-59 season. Before her tragic death from cancer at the age of 34, she had already produced a remarkable body of work, including The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and Les Blancs. Her former husband and literary executor, the late Robert Nemiroff, posthumously produced and published her To Be Young, Gifted and Black and the musical Raisin.

Robert Nemiroff (1929-1991) was a Broadway producer and the literary executor of Lorraine Hansberry's estate.