In order to understand their plight, Griffin decided to 'become' black. One of his undertakings for Sepia was a survey in November 1959, investigating the high suicide rate among southern blacks. After regaining his sight Griffin became a staff reporter for Sepia, a black monthly magazine patterned on Life magazine. Many people speculated that he had never really been blind Time magazine suggested that his blindness had been hysterical. In June 1957 Griffin's sight suddenly returned. By the time of its publication he had fully recovered from the malaria. In spite of these devastating physical setbacks, his second novel, Nuni, was published in 1956. In the fall of 1952 he was diagnosed with malaria and was soon confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed in all but his left arm.

Although the book was banned in Detroit as being too sexually explicit, it received many positive critical reviews.

Griffin's subsequent novel, The Devil Rides Outside (1952), dealt with the struggle between faith and temptation. A major turning point in his life came when he met the drama critic John Mason Brown, who suggested he become a writer. By 1947, Griffin was totally blind and abandoned all hope of an academic career, deciding instead to raise hogs. In later years he retreated to a monastery in difficult times. In 1946 he spent several months in a Dominican monastery with a friend who was a monk. His discharge papers indicated that his vision was 20/200, which meant that he was legally blind. During his stay in the South Pacific, Griffin's vision began to fail after an artillery attack during which he was knocked unconscious. There he became involved in a United States government project to prepare Pacific islanders for the possibility of American occupation his job was to gain the trust of the natives. Griffin returned to the United States, enlisted in the United States Army, and was sent to the South Pacific.

Author john howard griffin