Richard Wright

Gregory W. Fowler (Governors State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

Born 4 Sep 1908
Died 28 Nov 1960
Activity 1925-1960

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

African American

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Essayist
Novelist
Poet
Story-writer

Other

Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter
Historian / Chronicler
Theatre actor

Resources

Wright's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Richard Wright was one of the first African-Americans to rise to gain fame and fortune as a professional writer. He published in numerous literary genres, including, short stories, autobiographies, novels, haikus and other forms of poetry, and a folk history. His influence went far beyond his own work, affecting the literary careers of many other African-Americans, including James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Margaret Walker. Among Wright’s literary achievements were his ability to portray Black America to White America in a stark new light and his understanding that words could be used as weapons in the America’s racial conflict. In

American Hunger

he wrote, “I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2165 words

Citation: Fowler, Gregory W.. "Richard Wright". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4813, accessed 23 November 2024.]