Richard Wright

Biography

He was born in Roxie, small town close to Natchez, in the the Mississippi, the September 4th 1908. Grandson of Slave, it passes a childhood difficult to Jackson, the Mississippi, given up by an alcoholic father and raised by his mother. In 1927 he moves with Memphis and it is at that time that he discovers the work of H.L. Mencken. After having exerted multiple odd jobs, it leaves in 1934 for Chicago where, in 1935, it started to collaborate in “Federal Writers' Project”. In 1938, it publishes the collection of news Uncle Tom' S children (children of the Uncle Tom) which was rewarded by “Guggenheim Fellowship” the following year. Member of the Communist party of the United States of America from which it distancia at the beginning of the Years 1940, his work was marked by the condition of the Blacks in the United States like by the dangers of religious fundamentalism. After the Second world war, it settles with its family with Paris where it binds with Jean-Paul Sartre and where it lived until his death, the November 28th 1960. It is buried with the Cimetière of the Father-Lachaise.

Principal works

Native sound (a native), its most known work, written in 1940. It is a dramatic novel putting in scene a young American Black, Bigger Thomas, idealist and wanting to leave his condition, whose life will finish in blood. It was carried twice to the screen, in 1951 and 1986, the first time produced by Pierre Chenal with itself in the main role.
Black servant boy , autobiographical work written in 1945 telling its childhood in the segregationist south.
The Outsider (the defector), novel of inspiration existentialist (1953).
White man, listen! , collection of conferences pronounced in Europe (1957).
Eight men , collection of news published shortly after its death in 1960.
American hunger , posthumous autobiographical work in which it recalls its problems with the Communist party (1977).

External bonds

An article of the '' diplomatic Monde ''

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