Richard Wright (1) (1908–1960)
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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 visa mer 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) visa färre
Foto taget av: 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)
Verk av Richard Wright
Black Power: Three Books from Exile: Black Power; The Color Curtain; and White Man, Listen! (2008) 89 exemplar
The Man Who Was Almost a Man 4 exemplar
Down by the Riverside 4 exemplar
How "Bigger" was born; the story of Native son, one of the most significant novels of our time 3 exemplar
Scoperte d'infanzia. Racconto 1 exemplar
Wright Richard 1 exemplar
Mi vida de negro 1 exemplar
Długi sen 1 exemplar
Sanje nekega življenja 1 exemplar
Sangre negra 1 exemplar
Såsom en eldstod 1 exemplar
Five Famous Writers 1 exemplar
Associerade verk
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American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Bidragsgivare — 407 exemplar
The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology (1967) — Bidragsgivare — 175 exemplar
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Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970 (1970) — Bidragsgivare — 13 exemplar
The Best Short Stories of 1941 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1941) — Bidragsgivare — 10 exemplar
Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, Volume I (1962) — Inledning, vissa utgåvor — 10 exemplar
The Best Short Stories of 1939 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1939) — Bidragsgivare — 6 exemplar
Fifty Years of the American Short Story from the O. Henry Awards 1919-1970, Volume II (1970) — Bidragsgivare — 5 exemplar
Taggad
Allmänna fakta
- Vedertaget namn
- Wright, Richard
- Namn enligt folkbokföringen
- Wright, Richard Nathaniel
- Födelsedag
- 1908-09-04
- Avled
- 1960-11-28
- Begravningsplats
- Le Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris, France
- Kön
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Födelseort
- Roxie, Mississippi, USA
- Dödsort
- Paris, France
- Dödsorsak
- heart attack
- Bostadsorter
- Jackson, Mississippi, USA
Chicago, Illinois, USA
New York, New York, USA
Paris, France - Utbildning
- Lanier High School, Jackson, Mississippi, USA
- Yrken
- novelist
short-story writer
poet
essayist
editor
postal clerk - Organisationer
- John Reed Club
Communist Party
National Negro Congress
South Side Writers Group (chairman)
Left Front (editor)
Daily Worker (editor) (visa alla 7)
Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project - Priser och utmärkelser
- Spingarn Medal (1941)
Guggenheim Fellowship
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (2010)
Story Prize (1938)
Medlemmar
Recensioner
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?).… (mer)
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?).… (mer)
A young sociopath kills a white woman he barely knows, by accident, dismembers her and burns her body, then rapes and kills his own girlfriend. He is hunted down and captured, pleads guilty and goes to trial for the murder of the white woman. The man's race is used as a convenient explanation for his crimes, while his case is picked up by various people with their own agendas as a tool for their use. The fact that Wright is drawing on his own experiences as a Black man during the depression makes this book stronger, but the trial and justice system stuff in the third part is tedious and needed more editing. It seems pretty obvious that the boy Bigger is supposed to be assumed to have been pushed by racism to become a violent criminal, even though he has friends and family who are not killers and rapists despite living in the same environment. He seems to feel no remorse for his crimes. While the fact that his rape and murder of his girlfriend seems less important to the white people involved in the case, Bigger doesn't even seem to think about Bessie as a human being, just something that got in the way and needed to be discarded.
As far as social commentary, though, this book does show a good argument for the importance of education and economic equity. The fact that Bigger and his friends and family are so poorly educated makes them more vulnerable to mistreatment by people with more education, and their lack of education makes it harder for them to make good decisions that improve their lives. Another interesting argument from this story would be the importance of purpose in men's lives. The poor women in this story, with the responsibilities on their shoulders to keep themselves and their households functional, seem less inclined to resort to stupid criminal acts with high risks. The one truly irresponsible woman in this book, Mary, is living a pampered life similar to Bigger's, in that any mistakes she makes are dealt with by her parents or other responsible adults. Both Mary and Bigger can continue to act immature and irresponsible, at least until Bigger murders Mary and thus creates consequences even his mother and Bessie can't rescue him from.… (mer)
As far as social commentary, though, this book does show a good argument for the importance of education and economic equity. The fact that Bigger and his friends and family are so poorly educated makes them more vulnerable to mistreatment by people with more education, and their lack of education makes it harder for them to make good decisions that improve their lives. Another interesting argument from this story would be the importance of purpose in men's lives. The poor women in this story, with the responsibilities on their shoulders to keep themselves and their households functional, seem less inclined to resort to stupid criminal acts with high risks. The one truly irresponsible woman in this book, Mary, is living a pampered life similar to Bigger's, in that any mistakes she makes are dealt with by her parents or other responsible adults. Both Mary and Bigger can continue to act immature and irresponsible, at least until Bigger murders Mary and thus creates consequences even his mother and Bessie can't rescue him from.… (mer)
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Associerade författare
Statistik
- Verk
- 55
- Även av
- 71
- Medlemmar
- 17,143
- Popularitet
- #1,297
- Betyg
- 4.0
- Recensioner
- 217
- ISBN
- 351
- Språk
- 13
- Favoritmärkt
- 32
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.… (mer)