Buy new:
-33% $12.69
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$12.69 with 33 percent savings
List Price: $18.99

The List Price is the suggested retail price of a new product as provided by a manufacturer, supplier, or seller. Except for books, Amazon will display a List Price if the product was purchased by customers on Amazon or offered by other retailers at or above the List Price in at least the past 90 days. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price.
Learn more
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 19 hrs 31 mins
In Stock
$$12.69 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.69
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
Good. Cover, binding, and dust jacket in good condition. Signs of wear may include the following; wear on corners and edges, rubbing on cover, writing or highlighting on few pages, name or gift inscription, small crease on cover, small tear on dust jacket, few dog eared pages, etc. Ships from Amazon! Good. Cover, binding, and dust jacket in good condition. Signs of wear may include the following; wear on corners and edges, rubbing on cover, writing or highlighting on few pages, name or gift inscription, small crease on cover, small tear on dust jacket, few dog eared pages, etc. Ships from Amazon! See less
FREE delivery Saturday, May 18 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 12 hrs 46 mins
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$12.69 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.69
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

bell hooks
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Bone Black Paperback – October 15, 1997

by Bell Hooks (Author)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 182 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$12.69","priceAmount":12.69,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"69","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"1%2BqGfYan%2FvuzIVI%2F5F0HFtAbkklqda0gmcvjusW23Njq%2BhblRgaSBOUqbGCqPfs7b6%2F8Gfo6BA6%2FlYWY%2FnkRvnGWL0fB1bUAURpQ2F%2FuheQw%2BAEz7HbdbOAwlHCfweo0VKot4WCqybA%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.99","priceAmount":9.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"1%2BqGfYan%2FvuzIVI%2F5F0HFtAbkklqda0gn7dSrtu7An7cBNAHQzYZsTQsMYpWTu%2FpYXoXhjJJVEbQvWrvMhIpGFnPhAkWiKq4rzN1HzyKhfMDKuSAFN64OzptF%2Bc5pU0t%2BC4CfXIPzwGjVQhxcSqv5hdfFpP5hHc8bJjjHkczl70P6H4epQhP7xzC3eVDAkWW","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

“A canvas of vividly impressionistic splashes of growing up young, gifted, Black, and female.” ―The Philadelphia Inquirer
In this memoir of perceptions and ideas, renowned feminist intellectual bell hooks presents a stirringly intimate account of growing up in the South. Stitching together the gossamer threads of her girlhood memories, hooks shows us one strong-spirited child’s journey toward becoming a writer. Along the way, hooks sheds light on the vulnerability of children, the special unfurling of female creativity, and the imbalance of a society that confers marriage’s joys upon men and its silences on women. In a world where daughters and daddies are strangers under the same roof, and crying children are often given something to cry about, hooks uncovers the solace to be found in solitude, the comfort to be had in the good company of books.
Bone Black allows us to bear witness to the awakening of a legendary author’s awareness that writing is her most vital breath.
“With the emotion of poetry, the narrative of a novel, and the truth of experience, bell hooks weaves a girlhood memoir you won’t be able to put down―or forget. Bone Black takes us into the cave of self-creation.” ―Gloria Steinem

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    October 15, 1997
  4. Dimensions
    5 x 0.52 x 7.5 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    0805055126
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0805055122
  7. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.

Frequently bought together

Bone Black
$12.69
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
All About Love: New Visions
$13.12
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life
$15.49
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Choose items to buy together.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Bone Black is a lucid, challenging, and entrancing read.” ―The Washington Post Book World

“With the emotion of poetry, the narrative of a novel, and the truth of experience, Bell Hooks weaves a girlhood memoir you won't be able to put down--or forget. Bone Black takes us into the cave of self-creation.” ―Gloria Steinem

“A canvas of vividly impressionistic splashes of growing up young, gifted, black, and female.” ―The Philadelphia Inquirer

About the Author

bell hooks, born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952, was an American author who used lowercase as both an homage to her maternal great-grandmother and an attempt to keep readers’ focus where it belonged: on her work. When she died in 2021, hooks left behind a lifetime of thought that was decades ahead of its time. In the heyday of feminism, when the movement claimed to represent all women equally, hooks revealed in Ain’t I a Woman―written when she was only nineteen―how the specific life experiences of Black women were being marginalized.


She never lost this pioneering spirit, bringing it to bear on more than thirty books of literary criticism, children’s fiction, poetry, and autobiography, including Killing Rage: Ending Racism, Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood, Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life, Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work, Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, Where We Stand: Class Matters, Communion: The Female Search for Love and the New York Times bestseller All About Love: New Visions.


A professor of English, African and Afro-American studies, American literature, and women’s studies, hooks taught at USC, Yale, among other institutions, including Berea College in her home state of Kentucky, where the bell hooks center was established to honor her work. Winner of the American Book Award in 1991 for Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics, a 2000 nominee for the NAACP’s Image Award, a 2018 inductee into Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, and one of Time’s 100 Women of the Year in 2020, hooks left her mark in every field she entered.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Holt Paperbacks; Reprint edition (October 15, 1997)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0805055126
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0805055122
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.52 x 7.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 182 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
bell hooks

bell hooks

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

bell hooks is a cultural critic, feminist theorist, and writer. Celebrated as one of our nation's leading public intellectual by The Atlantic Monthly, as well as one of Utne Reader's 100 Visionaries Who Could Change Your Life, she is a charismatic speaker who divides her time among teaching, writing, and lecturing around the world. Previously a professor in the English departments at Yale University and Oberlin College, hooks is now a Distinguished Professor of English at City College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the author of more than seventeen books, including All About Love: New Visions; Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work; Wounds of Passion: A Writing Life; Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood; Killing Rage: Ending Racism; Art on My Mind: Visual Politics; and Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life. She lives in New York City.

Photo by Alex Lozupone (Tduk) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
182 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

judith A. levine
5.0 out of 5 stars New
Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2024
Verified Purchase
In new condition
Helpful
 Report
N. McDowell
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2022
Verified Purchase
This little book is stunning. hooks describes seminal times and events from her childhood with grace, insight, and near-poetic language.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Corinne
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great edition, came exactly as promised
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2017
Verified Purchase
bell hooks is a revolutionary thinker, and her memoir is truly phenomenal. This is a great edition, came exactly as promised. A very quick read - only takes a few hours to get through the first time, but rewards further reflection. I read this as a book club book, and I recommend reading it for conversation. It sparks thinking about all sorts of different, quite serious, themes and topics, but also a great spark for more close reads around writing.
10 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Johanna Haas
5.0 out of 5 stars This book changes the way I think.
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2024
The memoir pulls you deep inside the body of a girl growing up in poverty in the South, into a life that could be on another planet from the life I grew up in (poor and white in West Virginia). I'd put this on a must-read list for nearly everyone (or at least all the white people.) In her society, everyone had a role except for an over-smart and opinionated young girl who got in trouble all the time.
Helpful
 Report
Candace Marie
5.0 out of 5 stars Great quality book , fast shipping
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2019
Verified Purchase
Fast shipping, good quality book
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
onename/2reviewers
4.0 out of 5 stars Candid and Insightful
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2015
Verified Purchase
A life story with many facets that many can identify with. And those identifying need not be black. It is encouraging to know that some blacks and some whites have some experiences in common. When this is understood healing can begin. Well written and easy to read with this engaging theme. Worth reading.
That said, I would not have read it had I seen the author's bio first.
Helpful
 Report
Penelope m Penelope le'Amore
5.0 out of 5 stars A poignant, touching read.
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book highly resonates with me. Beautifully written.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The book was very interesting
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2018
Verified Purchase
The book helped me to see and understand the life of another
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2017
Verified Purchase
Within the first page, she mentions Toni Morrison. :D
Report