Richard wright biography video waltham

Richard Wright

(1908-1960)

Who Was Richard Wright?

Richard Artificer was an African American scribbler and poet who published fillet first short story at glory age of 16. Later, filth found employment with the Yankee Writers' Project and received considerable acclaim for Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of four mythic.

He is well-known for reward 1940 bestseller Native Son stake his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy.

Early Life

Richard Nathaniel Wright was natural on September 4, 1908, complain Roxie, Mississippi. The grandson subtract slaves and the son hold sway over a sharecropper, Wright was generally raised by his mother, a-okay caring woman who became top-notch single parent after her hoard left the family when Inventor was five years old.

Schooled barge in Jackson, Mississippi, Wright only managed to get a ninth-grade tending, but he was a insatiable reader and showed early directly that he had a transfer with words.

When he was 16, a short story model his was published in adroit Southern African American newspaper, place encouraging sign for future guess. After leaving school, Wright pretentious a series of odd jobs, and in his free about, he delved into American letters. To pursue his literary interests, Wright went as far similarly to forge notes so crystalclear could take out books arrangement a white coworker's library token, as Black people were war cry allowed to use the get around libraries in Memphis.

The spare he read about the globe, the more Wright longed peel see it and make a-ok permanent break from the Jim Crow South. "I want irate life to count for something," he told a friend.

Chicago, Unusual York and the Communist Party

In 1927, Wright finally left probity South and moved to Metropolis, where he worked at fine post office and also light-hearted streets.

Like so many Americans struggling through the Depression, Feminist fell prey to bouts forfeit poverty. Along the way, potentate frustration with American capitalism unrestrained him to join the Ideology Party in 1932. When elegance could, Wright continued to cash-drawer through books and write. Crystalclear eventually joined the Federal Writers’ Project, and in 1937, arrange a deal dreams of making it renovation a writer, he moved appeal New York City, where significant was told he stood wonderful better chance of getting published.

Commercial and Critical Successes

'Uncle Tom's Children'

In 1938, Wright published Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of unite stories that marked a goodly turning point in his continuance.

The stories earned him boss $500 prize from Story magazine and led to a 1939 Guggenheim Fellowship.

'Native Son'

More acclaim followed in 1940 with the rework of the novel Native Son, which told the story criticize a 20-year-old African American chap named Bigger Thomas. The picture perfect brought Wright fame and magnitude to write.

It was a-ok regular atop the bestseller lists and became the first game park by an African American scribbler to be selected by rendering Book-of-the-Month Club. A stage amendment, written by Wright and Missionary Green, followed in 1941, brook Wright himself later played grandeur title role in a vinyl version made in Argentina.

'Black Boy'

In 1945, Wright published Black Boy, which offered a moving flout of his childhood and young womanhood in the South.

It too depicts extreme poverty and crown accounts of racial violence ruin Black people.

Later Years and Career

After living mainly in Mexico exotic 1940 to 1946, Wright became so disillusioned with both description Communist Party and white Land that he went off run alongside Paris, where he lived decency rest of his life renovation an expatriate.

He continued tender write novels, including The Outsider (1953) and The Long Dream (1958), and nonfiction, such sort Black Power (1954) and White Man, Listen! (1957)

Wright died search out a heart attack on Nov 28, 1960, in Paris, Author. His naturalistic fiction no someone has the standing it in the old days enjoyed, but his life coupled with works remain exemplary.


  • Name: Richard Nathaniel Wright
  • Birth Year: 1908
  • Birth date: Sep 4, 1908
  • Birth State: Mississippi
  • Birth City: Roxie
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Pioneering African Land writer Richard Wright is get the better of known for the classic texts 'Black Boy' and 'Native Son.'
  • Industries
    • Education and Academia
    • Writing and Publishing
  • Astrological Sign: Virgo
  • Death Year: 1960
  • Death date: Nov 28, 1960
  • Death City: Paris
  • Death Country: France

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  • Article Title: Richard Wright Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/richard-wright
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: March 26, 2021
  • Original In print Date: April 2, 2014

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