Richard Wright
Richard Wright (1908 - 1960) was an African American writer known for Native Son, Black Boy, Uncle Tom's Children, and more. His literature dealt with racial themes, including discrimination and violence.
- Richard Wright: BiographyPioneering African American writer Richard Wright is best known for the classic texts 'Black Boy' and 'Native Son.'
- Richard Wright: BritannicaRichard Wright, (born September 4, 1908, near Natchez, Mississippi, U.S.—died November 28, 1960, Paris, France), novelist and short-story writer who was among the first African American writers to protest white treatment of Blacks, notably in his novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945). He inaugurated the tradition of protest explored by other Black writers after World War II.
- Richard Wright: Poetry FoundationRichard Wright is recognized as one of the preeminent novelists and essayists of the 20th century. He is most famous for writings depicting the harsh realities of life for Black Americans in the Jim Crow–era South: the short story collection Uncle Tom’s Children (1938); the novel Native Son (1940), which was a bestseller and a Book-of-the-Month club selection, the first by a Black writer to earn the distinction, and produced by John Houseman and Orson Welles on Broadway; and his autobiography, Black Boy (1945).
Research & Reference
- Richard Wright: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Richard Wright. This page includes links to reference works, journal articles, and a mind map.
- Richard Wright Papers: YaleThe Richard Wright Papers consist of manuscripts, letters, photographs, printed materials, legal and financial documents, subject files, and material objects which document the life and work of the writer, Richard Wright (1908-1960). The collection spans the years 1927-1978, the bulk of the material concentrated in 1940-1960, the years of Wright's greatest output as an author.
Streaming Media
- Native SonOne of the most controversial novels of its day, Richard Wright's Native Son (first published in 1940) exposed the injustices of urban African-American life, witnessed through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, whose violent tendencies and moral confusion were the natural result of a lifetime of deprivation. In prison for murder and sentenced to death, Thomas reflects on the circumstances that led to his fate.
- Richard Wright - Black BoyRICHARD WRIGHT - BLACK BOY is an Emmy Award-winning film -- the first documentary film on the life, work and legacy of Richard Wright. Born outside Natchez, Mississippi in 1908, Wright overcame a childhood of poverty and oppression to become one of America's most influential writers. His first major works, Native Son and Black Boy, were runaway best sellers which are still mainstays of high school and college literature and composition classes. According to critic Irving Howe, "The day Native Son appeared, American culture was changed forever."
- Richard Wright: Native Son, Author And ActivistNATIVE SON, AUTHOR & ACTIVIST. RICHARD WRIGHT was an African-American author of novels, short stories and non-fiction that dealt with powerful themes and controversial topics. Much of his works concerned racial themes that helped redefine discussions of race relations in America in the mid-20th century. Born on a plantation in Mississippi, Wright was a descendent of the first slaves who arrived in Jamestown Massachusetts. This program follows his arduous path from sharecropper to literary giant. Through authors like H.L. Menken, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, he discovered that literature could be used as a catalyst for social change. In 1937 Wright moved to New York and his work began to garner national attention for it’s political and social commentary. Much of Wright’s writing focused on the African American community and experience; his novel Native Son won him a Guggenheim Fellowship and was adapted to the Broadway stage with Orson Welles directing in 1941. In 1946, Wright was fed up with America’s treatment of its black citizens and became an expatriate in Paris, France where he joined a circle that included famous Existentialists Jean-Paul Sarte and Albert Camus. Though he quit his formal education at only 15 years old, Richard Wright was a major influence on world literature & politics, and brought the black experience to the forefront of social discourse.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Native Son
With an introduction by Arnold Rampersad "The Library of America has insured that most of Wright's major texts are now available as he wanted them to be read." --Alfred Kazin, New York Times Book Review Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny: by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection of the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America. "This new edition gives us a Native Son in which the key line in the key scene is restored to the great good fortune of American letters. The scene as we now have it is central both to an ongoing conversation among African-American writers and critics and to the consciousness among all American readers of what it means to live in a multi-racial society in which power splits among racial lines." --Jack Miles, Los Angeles Times
Richard Wright
Upon meeting thirty-three-year-old Richard Wright in 1941, the renowned sociologist Robert Park famously demanded, "How in hell did you happen?" Having been born into poverty in a sharecropper's cabin in 1908, Wright managed to complete only an eighth-grade education. Yet by the time he met Park he was the best-selling author of Native Son (1940), a searing indictment of racism that is a classic of American literature. Although Wright died prematurely at the age of fifty-two, he published nearly a dozen books and left behind hundreds of unpublished manuscript pages. Jennifer Jensen Wallach's biography--which we will publish on the fiftieth anniversary of his mysterious death--traces Wright from his obscure origins to international fame, from the cotton fields of Mississippi to his expatriate home of Paris. She highlights Wright's various attempts to answer the driving question of his life: "How can I live freely?" Seeking answers, Wright traveled widely and became involved with many of the most important intellectual and political movements of his day, including Marxism, existentialism, and Pan-Africanism. Along the way he struggled to balance his own fierce sense of individualism with a desire to be a spokesperson for oppressed people throughout the globe. His ardent prose infuriated, bewildered, and inspired a generation of African-American writers and activists. It also attracted the attention of American intelligence agencies, which placed Wright under surveillance for most of his adult life. To both his critics and admirers, Wright proved the truth of his claim that words are among the most powerful of weapons.