Never before in the entire history of the American theater has so much of the truth of Black people s lives been seen on the stage observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. This edition presents the fully restored uncut version of Hansberry s landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff. Lorraine Hansberry s award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected profoundly with the psyche of Black America--and changed American theater forever. The play s title comes from a line in Langston Hughes s poem Harlem which warns that a dream deferred might dry up/like a raisin in the sun. The events of every passing year add resonance to A Raisin in the Sun said The New York Times. It is as if history is conspiring to make the play a classic.