Wright, Richard, 1908–60, American author. An African American born on a Mississippi plantation, Wright struggled through a difficult childhood and worked to educate himself. He moved to Chicago in 1927 and in the 1930s joined the city's Federal Writers' Project and wrote Uncle Tom's Children (1938), a collection of four novellas dealing with Southern racial problems. His novel Native Son (1940), which many consider Wright's most important work, concerns the life of Bigger Thomas, a victimized African American struggling against the complicated political and social conditions of Chicago in the 1930s. In 1932, Wright joined the Communist party but later left it in disillusionment. After World War II, Wright moved to Paris. His Black Boy (1945), also regarded as one of his finest works, is an account of his childhood and youth. Other works include Twelve Million Black Voices (1941), a folk history of African Americans; American Hunger (1977), a two-part autobiography; The Outsider (1953) and The Long Dream (1958), two novels; Black Power (1954), an account of his trip to the Gold Coast (Ghana); and Eight Men (1961), a collection of stories published posthumously. Originally censored by his publishers due to their racial, political, or sexual candor, Wright's works were reissued unexpurgated in 1991.

Bibliography

See biographies by C. Webb (1968), M. Fabre (tr. 1973), A. Gayle (1980), M. Walker (1988), and H. Rowley (2001); studies by D. McCall (1969), K. Kinnamon (1973), and D. Ray and R. M. Farnsworth, ed. (1973).

Wright, Richard

(born Sept. 4, 1908, near Natchez, Miss., U.S.—died Nov. 28, 1960, Paris, France) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Wright, whose grandparents had been slaves, grew up in poverty. After migrating north he joined the Federal Writers' Project in Chicago, then moved to New York City in 1937. He was a member of the Communist Party in the years 1932–44. He first came to wide attention with a volume of novellas, Uncle Tom's Children (1938). His novel Native Son (1940), though considered shocking and violent, became a best-seller. The fictionalized autobiography Black Boy (1945) vividly describes his often harsh childhood and youth. After World War II he settled in Paris. He is remembered as one of the first African American writers to protest white treatment of blacks.

Wright, Richard (Nathaniel) (1908–60) writer, poet; born near Natchez, Miss. The grandson of slaves and son of a sharecropper, he went to school in Jackson, Miss., through only the ninth grade, but got a story published at age 16 while working at various jobs in the South. In 1927 he went to Chicago and worked briefly in the post office, but, forced on relief by the Depression, he joined the Communist Party (1932). With two more minor works published, he found employment with the Federal Writers Project; his Uncle Tom's Children (1938), a collection of four stories, was highly acclaimed. In 1937 he moved to New York City where he was an editor on the Communist newspaper, Daily Worker, but the publication of Native Son (1940) brought him overnight fame and freedom to write; a stage version (by Wright and Paul Green) followed in 1941 (and Wright himself later played the title role in a movie version made in Argentina). Black Boy (1945) advanced his reputation, but after living mainly in Mexico (1940–46), he had become so disillusioned with both the Communists and white America that he went off to Paris where he lived the rest of his life as an expatriate. He continued to write novels—such as The Outsider (1953) and The Long Dream (1958)—and nonfiction—such as Black Power (1954) and White Man, Listen! (1957)—and was regarded by African-American writers such as James Baldwin as an inspiration. His naturalistic fiction no longer has the standing it once enjoyed, but his life and works remain exemplary.