Richard Wright (1) (1908–1960)
Author of Native Son
For other authors named Richard Wright, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Richard Wright was generally thought of as one of the most gifted contemporary African American writers until the rise of James Baldwin. "With Wright, the pain of being a Negro is basically economic---its sight is mainly in the pocket. With Baldwin, the pain suffuses the whole man. . . . If show more Baldwin's sights are higher than Wright's, it is in part because Wright helped to raise them" (Time). Wright was born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, the son of a sharecropper. At the age of 15, he started to work in Memphis, then in Chicago, then "bummed all over the country," supporting himself by various odd jobs. His early writing was in the smaller magazines---first poetry, then prose. He won Story Story's $500 prize---for the best story written by a worker on the Writer's Project---with "Uncle Tom's Children" in 1938, his first important publication. He wrote Native Son (1940) in eight months, and it made his reputation. Based in part on the actual case of a young black murderer of a white woman, it was one of the first of the African American protest novels, violent and shocking in its scenes of cruelty, hunger, rape, murder, flight, and prison. Black Boy (1945) is the simple, vivid, and poignant story of Wright's early years in the South. It appeared at the beginning of a new postwar awareness of the evils of racial prejudice and did much to call attention to the plight of the African American. The Outsider (1953) is a novel based on Wright's own experience as a member of the Communist party, an affiliation he terminated in 1944. He remained politically inactive thereafter and from 1946 until his death made his principal residence in Paris. His nonfiction writings on problems of his race include Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos (1954), about a visit to the Gold Coast, White Man, Listen (1957), and Twelve Million Black Voices: A Folk History of the Negro in the United States. (Bowker Author Biography) Richard Wright was born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi. His father left the family when Wright was only five years old, and he was raised first by his mother and then by a series of relatives. What little schooling he had ended with his graduation from ninth grade in Memphis, Tennessee. At age 15, he started to work in Memphis, and later worked in Chicago before traveling across the country supporting himself with odd jobs. When Wright finally returned to Chicago, he got a job with the federal Writer's Project, a government-supported arts program. He was quite successful, winning a $500 prize from a magazine for the best fiction written by a participant in that program. In Chicago, he was also introduced to leftist politics and became a member of the Communist Party. In 1937, Wright left Chicago for New York, where he became Harlem editor for the Communist national newspaper, The Daily Worker, and where he met future novelist, Ralph Ellison. Wright became a celebrated author with the publication of Native Son (1940), a novel he wrote in only eight months. Based on the actual case of a young black murderer of a white woman, it was one of the first of the modern black protest novels, violent and shocking in its sense of cruelty, hunger, rape, murder, flight, and prison. This novel brought Wright both fame and financial security. He followed it with his autobiography, Black Boy (1945), which was also successful. In 1942, Wright and his wife broke with the Communist Party, and in 1947, they moved to France, where Wright lived the rest of his life. His novel The Outsider (1953) is based on his experiences as a member of the Communist Party. Wright is regarded as a major modern American writer, one of the first black writers to reach a large white audience, and thereby raise the level of national awareness of the continuing problem of racism in America. In many respects Wright paved the way for all black writers who followed him. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Richard Wright (1908-1960)
Photograph by Gordon Parks, May 1943
(Farm Security Administration-
Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress)
Photograph by Gordon Parks, May 1943
(Farm Security Administration-
Office of War Information Photograph Collection,
Library of Congress)
Works by Richard Wright
Richard Wright: Early Works: Lawd Today!, Uncle Tom's Children, Native Son (1991) 378 copies, 4 reviews
Black Power: Three Books from Exile: Black Power; The Color Curtain; and White Man, Listen! (2008) 91 copies
The Man Who Was Almost a Man 5 copies
Down by the Riverside 4 copies
How "Bigger" was born; the story of Native son, one of the most significant novels of our time 3 copies
Mi vida de negro 1 copy
Długi sen 1 copy
Sanje nekega življenja 1 copy
Sangre negra 1 copy
Wright Richard 1 copy
Fire and cloud 1 copy
Five Famous Writers 1 copy
Associated Works
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 947 copies, 7 reviews
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study (1992) — Contributor, some editions — 517 copies
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Contributor — 417 copies, 1 review
Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993) — Contributor — 341 copies, 2 reviews
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contributor — 190 copies, 4 reviews
The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology (1967) — Contributor — 181 copies, 1 review
From Totems to Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas 1900-2002 (2002) — Contributor — 174 copies
Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1993) — Introduction, some editions — 164 copies, 3 reviews
The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work (2010) — Contributor — 145 copies, 1 review
Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature (1991) — Contributor — 144 copies, 1 review
An American Album: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Harper's Magazine (2000) — Contributor — 137 copies, 1 review
Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to Be White (1998) — Contributor — 123 copies, 2 reviews
Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories (1992) — Contributor — 102 copies
In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry (1994) — Contributor — 99 copies
Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers (1996) — Contributor — 89 copies
Bearing Witness: Selections from African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century (1991) — Contributor — 70 copies
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 68 copies, 1 review
Years of Protest: A Collection of American Writings of the 1930's (1967) — Contributor — 40 copies, 1 review
Buzz Words: Poems About Insects (Everyman's Library Pocket Poets Series) (2021) — Contributor — 39 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 (1970) — Contributor — 13 copies, 1 review
The Best Short Stories of 1941 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1941) — Contributor — 11 copies
Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, Volume I (1962) — Introduction, some editions — 10 copies, 1 review
The Best Short Stories of 1939 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1939) — Contributor — 8 copies
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970, Volume II (1970) — Contributor — 5 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Wright, Richard
- Legal name
- Wright, Richard Nathaniel
- Birthdate
- 1908-09-04
- Date of death
- 1960-11-28
- Burial location
- Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA (birth)
France (naturalized 1947) - Birthplace
- Roxie, Mississippi, USA
- Place of death
- Paris, France
- Cause of death
- heart attack
- Places of residence
- Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Chicago, Illinois, USA
New York, New York, USA
Paris, France - Education
- Lanier High School, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
- Occupations
- novelist
short-story writer
poet
essayist
editor
postal clerk - Relationships
- Wright, Malcolm (grandson)
- Organizations
- John Reed Club
Communist Party
National Negro Congress
South Side Writers Group (chairman)
Left Front (editor)
Daily Worker (editor) (show all 7)
Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project - Awards and honors
- Spingarn Medal (1941)
Guggenheim Fellowship
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (2010)
Story Prize (1938)
Members
Reviews
Uncle Tom's Children by Richard Wright
This book articulates the pain of being black in America like nothing else I've ever read. It's difficult to read in places, but it's a necessary difficulty.
This was a difficult but important book to read. The essay at the end, entitled “How Bigger was Born,” is equal parts an exploration of Wright’s creative process and a klaxon sounding against white ignorance of the black experience. When Wright began this essay talking about the overused trumped-up charge of r*pe levied against black men in the Jim Crow era, I couldn’t help but think of the reaction of many conservative whites to #MeToo, to the effect that they were worried that their sons’ or their own lives would be ruined by false accusations of sexual misconduct. Wright would surely say something to the effect of “Now, you understand something of what we’ve been going through.” I don’t recall if there were any black commentators who made this point, but it wouldn’t surprise me. A key difference, of course, is that the vast majority of mostly powerful whites who were accused were likely guilty, whereas the vast majority of kostly powerless blacks were likely innocent.
I also recognized some parallels to Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984: a strong desire to rebel against an oppressive system, couched even in terms of violence, but ultimately the same fate and failure.… (more)
I also recognized some parallels to Winston Smith in George Orwell’s 1984: a strong desire to rebel against an oppressive system, couched even in terms of violence, but ultimately the same fate and failure.… (more)
This actually consists of a novella-length story, plus a nonfiction essay. The short story is the one of the title. It’s set in the 1940s(?) (that’s when it was originally written, anyway), and a black man, Fred, leaving work, just having been paid in cash, is “arrested” by the police and “questioned”/tortured. Initially not knowing even what they police were talking about, it turns out the neighbours of the people Fred worked for had been murdered in their home earlier in the day. Fred manages to escape and moves underground via the sewers from building to building for a few days.
The essay talked about how the author grew up with his very religious Grandmother and how some things from that experience related to this story.
Overall, I’m rating it ok. The essay got pretty philosophical, so wasn’t all that interesting to me. The story itself was better, but also a little bit odd while Fred was underground. I definitely did not see the end coming (but maybe I should have?).… (more)
The essay talked about how the author grew up with his very religious Grandmother and how some things from that experience related to this story.
Overall, I’m rating it ok. The essay got pretty philosophical, so wasn’t all that interesting to me. The story itself was better, but also a little bit odd while Fred was underground. I definitely did not see the end coming (but maybe I should have?).… (more)
Lists
Overdue Podcast (1)
To read (1)
1940s (1)
First Novels (1)
"We" narration (1)
Read These Too (1)
AP Lit (2)
Carole's List (2)
Black Authors (1)
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 54
- Also by
- 71
- Members
- 17,614
- Popularity
- #1,254
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 216
- ISBNs
- 371
- Languages
- 15
- Favorited
- 32
