Richard Wright : the life and times
Born in Mississippi in 1908, the grandson of former slaves, Richard Wright spent his teenage years chopping wood, carrying coal, scrubbing floors, and enduring a thousand indignities. Later in his work, he raised profoundly disturbing questions about the "nightmarish jungle" of race relations in contemporary America, offering profoundly pessimistic answers in return. Wright had a large readership--even, for a time, a place on the bestseller lists and the top income-tax bracket. But, because he had joined the Communist Party as a young man, he was accused of anti-Americanism and even suspected of spying for Moscow and his books were banned in several states and cities. Eventually, a prophet without honor, he left his native country and lived out the rest of his years in France, where he is buried
Print Book, English, 2008
University of Chicago Press ed
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2008