When radio talk-show host and stand-up comic Brian Copeland got an angry letter from a listener accusing him of not being "a genuine black man," it set him to thinking about what being black meant to society and to him personally—and helped create Not a Genuine Black Man, his one-man show that continues a long and successful run in San Francisco. Now he has turned the material into a book, and Hyperion's
Mark Chait just preempted it for six figures for North American rights. In the book, Copeland will recount how his family was the first black one to buy a home in an all-white California city 30 years ago, and how his subsequent life has been affected by his experiences since then. The deal was signed with Coast agent
Amy Rennert.
