The Outsider (69 page)

He felt a weak impulse to laugh. His strength was
flowing rapidly from him. His eyes would not focus. The world that was visible was a grey, translucent screen that had begun to shimmer and waver. He closed his eyes and struggled with his tongue and lips to try to shape words.

“Do you understand what I mean, Damon?” Houston asked softly. “I'm talking about
you
, your life…How was it with
you
, Damon?”

His eyes stared bleakly. His effort was supreme; his lips parted; his tongue moved; he cursed that damned ball of seething fire that raged in his chest and managed to get his reluctant breath past it to make words:

“It…It was…horrible…”

There was a short silence, and then Houston's voice came again: “What do you mean? What was horrible?”

The effort to keep his heavy eyes open was too much and it was not worth trying. He stopped fighting and let his lids droop and darkness soothed him for a moment; once more he struggled grimly to control his lips and tongue, to still that exploding ball of fire that leaped white hot in his chest; then he said in a softly falling, dying whisper:

“All of it…”

“But why?
Why?
Try and tell me…”

“Because in my heart…I'm…I felt…I'm
innocent…
That's what made the horror…”

He felt his dull head falling helplessly to one side. Huge black shadows were descending softly down upon him. He took a chest full of air and sighed…

He was dead.

London—Paris, 1952

This volume presents the text of Richard Wright's
The Outsider
from the final typescript of the novel, submitted to his publishers in October 1952. This is the last version of the text that Wright prepared without external intervention by his publisher. A great deal of material pertaining to the publication of this work, including typescripts, proofs, and correspondence between Wright and his publishers, is in the James Weldon Johnson Collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale University and in the Harper and Brothers archive in the Firestone Library at Princeton University.

Wright began making notes for the novel that became
The Outsider
in 1948 while living in Paris. In February 1952 he went to England to do intensive work on the manuscript, and by April or May he had finished a first draft and sent it to his agent, Paul Reynolds, who suggested some revisions. Wright sent him a second typescript in July (now in the Johnson Collection at the Beinecke Library, catalogued as JWJ Wright #854). Reynolds then had the revised typescript delivered to Jack Fischer, who had replaced Edward Aswell as Wright's editor at Harper and Brothers when Aswell left the firm. Both Reynolds and Fischer sent Wright lists of suggested revisions, but the kinds of changes they asked for were very different. Paul Reynolds sent Wright specific factual questions and raised issues of plausibility and continuity. Jack Fischer, on the other hand, relying on a reading by a consultant who remains unidentified, asked Wright to cut the novel by one-third (from 220,000 to 150,000 words), to eliminate the beginning through the subway wreck, to drop the Joe and Jenny sequence, to cut the entire Hattie episode, and to
shorten or eliminate passages involving stream-of-consciousness and philosophical monologue. If followed, these revisions would have produced a very different novel from the one Wright had written. Fischer was interested in scheduling the novel for publication the following March, and he asked Wright to supply the final manuscript by October 1. Fischer also proposed to make the cuts and revisions at Harper, with Wright to see and approve the changes, but Wright declined the offer, preferring to make the revisions himself.

Wright worked on the novel through August and September, making revisions in three stages. He used the typescript returned from Fischer (JWJ Wright #854) to mark his revisions, then incorporated them onto a re-typed master-copy (JWJ Wright #856) that showed the old page numbers from the previous version; and finally he prepared a clean copy (JWJ Wright #858) incorporating some further revisions. This typescript was submitted to Harper and Brothers early in October. Wright did shorten the novel from its original length of 741 typescript pages to 620 pages by compressing certain passages, but he resisted Fischer's suggestions to eliminate entire sections of the novel. (Letters and typescripts now in the Johnson Collection at the Beinecke Library and in the Harper and Brothers archive in the Firestone Library of Princeton University reveal that Wright had a less than ideal working relationship with Fischer.) Wright incorporated, on the other hand, many of the revisions suggested by Paul Reynolds, whose advice he appreciated.

Wright submitted his final manuscript within days of when Harper and Brothers had requested it in order to meet the scheduled March 1953 publication date. However, in November 1952, after another reading by the un
identified consultant, Fischer again requested that Wright cut out the Hattie sequence. Wright had already shortened it to some extent and now reluctantly shortened it further. He was forced to use his master-copy (JWJ Wright #856) as a guide, since he had sent both the ribbon and carbon copies of the final typescript (JWJ Wright #858) to New York for the publisher's use. Wright prepared unnumbered pages of copy to show how the cutting should be done and sent these to Fischer. These pages were inserted by Harper and Brothers into the final typescript (JWJ Wright #858), replacing the pages that had previously contained the scene. In addition, two other pages and many whole passages and words were removed by a copy-editor for the publisher without Wright's knowledge (the pages that were removed are not known to be extant). Wright was later informed that some minor cutting had been done in house, but that he would be able to restore the cut material, if he wished, when correcting galleys. (For examples of the larger cuts made by the publisher, see the notes to this volume.) Because of the rush to produce books for March publication, however, he was allowed only 48 hours to read the galleys that incorporated the changes made by the publisher. Wright received galleys on December 20 and returned the first portion on December 21 and the remainder by December 23. These galleys are not known to survive, but there are some variants between the published book and the copy-edited typescript. A few of them seem to be instances where Wright attempted to restore his original meaning, but the time allotted was too short to allow him to do very much. In order to meet the schedule for publication, Wright had agreed that further reading of proofs be done by the publisher.

The Outsider
was published by Harper and Brothers
on March 18, 1953. Wright received advance copies in late February, and on March 17 he sent Fischer a list of 12 typographical errors, followed by another list of four errors several weeks later. Though Fischer included 13 of these corrections in a list of changes he sent to the printer, there is no evidence that any of these corrections were ever made in later printings or subsequent editions. Of the 16 corrections requested by Wright, only five apply to the text printed in this volume; these have been incorporated at the following places: at 76.30, “on to her” has been changed to “onto her”; at 107.20, “come in” has been changed to “come out”; at 244.31, “hold on to” has been changed to “hold onto”; at 459.18, “condolences” has been changed to “condolence”; and at 564.34–35, a sentence has been added: “…Blimin told me about your ideas.'”

In order to eliminate the effects of the unauthorized copy-editing done by the publisher, this volume prints the text of the final typescript of
The Outsider
, submitted by Wright in October 1952 (JWJ Wright #858), ignoring the editorial markings, and uses Wright's mastercopy (JWJ Wright #856) for those pages removed by the publisher from the final typescript at the following places: pp. 149.6–150.5, 180.16–194.8, 310.6–311.2, and 579.26–581.21.

This volume presents the proof and typescript texts chosen for inclusion without change, except for the correction of typographical errors. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization often are expressive features and they are not altered, even when inconsistent or irregular. The following is a list of the typographical errors corrected, cited by page and line number: 7.31, “Say; 15.7, walking; 15.18, walking; 17.30, Moreover; 26.23, whom; 29.19, quiet,; 33.20, what're they; 33.21, what they're; 34.25, scarda; 37.26, harrassed; 38.8, wore; 39.25, identing;
42.34, damned; 46.10, said; 48.27, beserk; 48.34, there was; 49.11, said; 51.20, halldoor; 51.33, proceded; 62.21, tussel; 62.33, scene of; 68.27, penicillen; 77.18–19, existence; 79.7, musn't; 80.7, six years; 81.8, than; 81.10, childrens'; 82.8, devising; 83.25, “Hello,”; 87.1, said,; 89.27, eight-hundred dollar; 89.35, everyday; 91.16, would'nt; 91.31, Assistand; 94.34, mightly; 99.13, Absolutely; 103.15,
occured
; 103.30,
26 year-old
; 105.17–18, rammified; 106.35, very day; 112.10, to a; 113.16, accroutrements; 114.7, starting; 120.33, Be; 126.17, irresistably; 126.27, Gladys, his; 134.15, Joes; 146.18, accomodations; 149.15, it; 149.22, non-exsitent; 153.34, that saw; 155.32, priest;; 162.34–35, raising of; 173.11, particular'”,; 174.20, simple; 181.31, an an; 184.5, $100,000-apartment; 185.4, $100,000-apartment; 185.8, subtly; 187.34, “I; 190.17, white; 191.5, “She; 191.10, feeling; 191.13, grasped; 192.15, him; 192.17, Crosd; 193.11, back; 197.22–23, emminent; 197.24, facist; 204.33, decollete; 205.28, everyday; 206.18, twelve years; 208.30, realtives; 210.17, heared; 214.5, was not; 215.29, worse; 216.17, worse; 222.1, Jordon; 237.16–17, unctiousness; 238.30, obervation; 239.22–23, want to make me; 243.10, tended; 243.26, mantle; 243.33, let; 245.20–21, precede; 246.25, had; 247.23, agression; 248.26, indispensible; 249.5, said.; 250.16, was rolling; 261.14, five-room; 264.19, made; 267.27, virgins;; 271.17, were written; 274.1, wife a; 280.9, get?; 282.10, becomes; 284.33, told him; 287.24, whom; 287.26, mislead; 292.34, mucous; 298.1, saw that the; 298.34, sharp,; 300.22, advance; 302.15, tingling; 308.21, yes,; 309.4, destory; 310.13, dissillusionment; 313.23, interpretating; 315.9, down to; 317.17, effect; 318.15, lay; 318.35, trod; 320.32, chandalier; 326.35, in back; 331.11, whom; 335.10, Who's; 335.25, downstairs; 343.21, spontanenousness; 343.22, her grief; 349.7, whom; 359.25, his; 362.20, Corss; 362.23, moment,; 362.30, Blount saw; 364.5, Cross as; 368.8, Housten;
370.8, sometime; 371.28, We; 377.1, “others”; 379.25, that's; 380.2, externel; 388.8, in a; 391.32, any more; 392.16, would; 393.11–12, receptable; 393.19, whines; 402.17, reason; 403.17, shame of; 405.33, Hilton; 406.11, ralize; 407.1, Whom; 411.23, enveighed; 411.31, know; 412.25, wit; 414.26, this; 415.13, Or; 416.17, effected; 417.22, We're; 421.11, tended; 423.12, telepone; 433.16, keen; 437.19, Supermen; 437.20, syphillis; 442.26–27, but it was; 446.28, irredeemible; 454.34, “knowing”; 459.5, unctiously; 464.35, your; 466.24, four hour; 466.30,—dilemma; 468.23, dollar bills; 473.19, you; 478.19, the products; 478.20, long dreamed; 480.31, out; 484.19, sterlized; 486.2, philanthrophists; 486.21, capitalist; 486.33, its; 487.6, Blimen; 488.26, alieniated; 490.6, naïve to; 492.28, to others; 495.26, Communists; 498.6, dead to; 501.4,
NEITZSCHE
; 502.21, was to; 503.20–21, committments; 503.23, everyday; 504.4, question which; 504.6, it he; 504.21, flowed as; 504.30, sentinent; 505.4, desirious; 505.30–31, a ornately; 506.33, wished; 508.34–35, eight hundred dollar-loan; 509.5, known; 519.16, sucked his; 523.5, and and; 526.5, Attorny; 531.5, legs afraid,; 535.1, gasping; 535.20, strickened; 535.31, whomever; 538.4, words; 538.20, Someone; 541.4, What; 547.12, sometime; 547.30, Now,; 548.2, on me; 549.4, unctiously; 550.9, I'm; 551.20, “sent”; 555.30, momento; 556.8, tingling; 557.4, sonofabtich; 557.29, backing; 557.32, I was; 562.3, believe; 562.27, it.; 574.20, “used”; 580.9, Addision; 581.18, Hatte; 584.34, anything?; 586.21, softly,.