Richard wright biography of richard wright words can be weapons against injustice, wrote richard wright. These words are evidenced by wright?s own career as a successful black writer emerging during a period of racial oppression and economic hardship. Born september 4, 1908 on a plantation in roxie, mississippi, wright came into a family embedded in the southern tradition. His grandfather had been a slave, and his father was an illiterate sharecropper and mill worker. At the age of six, wright?s father abandoned the family, leaving wright and his younger brother by two years, leon, under the sole care of his mother ella who was a schoolteacher at the time. Moving to memphis, tennessee, where ella took a job as a cook, wright and his family lived in extreme poverty.

His mother felt it necessary to move from community to community wright thus attended school sporadically. In the meantime, he also stayed at the homes of various relatives in arkansas and mississippi, working various small part time jobs. With his meager earnings, he managed to buy magazines, dime novels, old schoolbooks.

In 1920, wright was sent to his grandmother?s house in jackson where he enrolled in high school. As a naturally gifted child and fast learner, he graduated from high school as the valedictorian. After graduation, he worked in memphis for a short time before moving to chicago in 1927, where wright was subjected to the jim crow segregation laws in his jobs as a postal worker and a hospital orderly. Intrigued by what he called an organized search for the truth of the lives of the oppressed and the isolated, wright began to compose poetry as a form of propaganda, attempting to humanize communism. He was soon promoted to executive secretary of the john reed club and surrounded himself with a group of leftist writers. When the communist party dissolved the club, wright was among the first to sign up for the american writers? congress, a literary organization that was controlled by the communist party. In 1935, wright completed his first novel, cesspool published post posthumously under the title lawd today.

Wright moved to harlem, new york, in 1937 where he kept himself busy writing articles for various journals and publication as well as his first published book, uncle tom?s children. The novel was finished in 1938 and consisted of a collection of novellas about racial oppression in the south. After being awarded a guggenheim fellowship, wright moved to brooklyn where he was able to finish what is considered one of the most defining works of his career: native son. Native son sold over 200,0 in less than a month and put wright on the map of twentieth century literati. With its vivid portrayal of slum conditions in the south as well as an intense sociological study, wright became considered a master of the psychological suspense narrative. The novel was soon adapted into a stage drama with the collaboration of paul green. Under the direction of the infamous orson welles, native son ran successfully on broadway for three years.

By this time, wright had divorced rose and married ellen poplar a descendant of polish jewish immigrants and a fellow leftist with whom he had two daughters. Became an instant success when it was published in 1945, making his first two books his most successful. By now, wright had fallen out with the communist party, becoming disillusioned with their ideological rigidity. With the money from his literary career, wright began to travel around europe, finally moving with his family to france in 1947. There he became interested in the anti colonialist movement and associated himself with several other successful thinkers, including jean paul satre, simone beauvoir, gertrude stein, george plimpton, and leopold senghor.

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But after completing several other works, wright began to distance himself from his associates due to his poor health and financial difficulties. On november 28, 1961, richard wright died of a heart attack at the age of 52 and was buried in paris. Other works by richard wright include: the negro and parkway community house 1941 the outsider 1955 savage holiday 1954 white man, listen! 1957 richard nathan wright was born september 4, 1908 in roxie, mississippi not far from nachez , the son of nathan wright, an illiterate sharecropper, and ella wilson wright, a schoolteacher, and the grandson of slaves. In 1911 ella takes wright and barely one year old brother leon alan to natchez to live with her family and the father later joins them and finds work in a sawmill. But within a year, nathan deserts them for another woman and ella works as a cook to support the family. However, ella fell ill early in 1916 and richard's father nathan's mother came for a while to care for the family. When she left, richard and alan had to live for a brief time in an orphange until ella could have them live with her parents in jackson, mississippi.