Johnson originally published The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man anonymously in 1912, via the small Boston publisher Sherman, French, & Company.[1] He decided to publish it anonymously because he was uncertain how the potentially controversial book would affect his diplomatic career. He wrote openly about issues of race and discrimination that were not common then in literature.[2] The book's initial public reception was poor.[3] It was republished in 1927, with some minor changes of phraseology,[4] by Alfred A. Knopf,[5] an influential firm that published many Harlem Renaissance writers, and Johnson was credited as the author.
Despite the title, the book is a novel. It is drawn from the lives of people Johnson knew and from events in his life. Johnson's text is an example of a roman à clef.