- 02/04/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
To start with, it should be noted that the works of Richard Wright had considerable impact on the Civil Rights Movement. Richard Nathaniel Wright (September 4, 1908, State of Mississippi – November 28, 1960, Paris) was an American writer. He was one of the most significant and famous African-American writers. He is also called “Black Boy”, especially after the release of the autobiographical novel of that name.
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908 in Natchez under the Mississippi River, where he spent the first years of life. Family soon disintegrated, and the mother and children moved to Jackson to her parents. After graduating from the 9th grade, Wright left school to support his mother and younger brother. Publication in a local newspaper of his first story of the author of sixteen confirmed his intention to become a writer. In 1927, Wright moved to Chicago, worked as a dishwasher, a messenger, a porter, clerk, was engaged in self-education. In 1932 joined the John Reed Club, became friendly with the Communists. His first serious work, a book of short stories, “Uncle Tom’s Children” (1938), was awarded the magazine “Story Magazine”. In 1939, Wright received a scholarship to the Guggenheim, which allowed him to write a novel Native Son, 1940, and his autobiographical novel Black Boy, 1945, as described in Richard Wright’s Life. s
At the age of fifteen, Wright wrote his first story, “TheVoodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre”, that was published in the local newspaper of Southern blacks Register. Richard moved to Chicago in 1927 and he read other writers and studied their styles when there was free time. When his work in the office was eliminated by the policies of Hoover to the Great Depression, was forced to turn for help in 1931. It should be noted that in 1932, Wright started to attend meetings of the John Reed Club. Wright was interested in literary contacts made at meetings, and he then joined the Communist Party in 1933, and as a revolutionary poet he wrote many poems proletarians, such as “I Have Seen Black Hands”, “We of the Streets”, “Red Leaves of Red Books”, left-wing newspapers like The New Masses and others.
In 1935, Wright had completed his first novel, “Black Pozo (Cesspool)”, which was published as Lawd Today in 1963, and in January 1936 his story “Big Boy Leaves Home”. In February, Wright began working with the National Black Congress, and in April, chaired the Writers of the Southern Zone (South Side Writers Group), whose members included Arna Bontemps, and Margaret Walker. Wright presented some of his essays and poetry criticism of the group reviews and read aloud some of his stories. While Wright was initially pleased by positive relationships with white communists in Chicago, he was still humiliated later in New York by some who withdrew an offer to find housing because of their race. Then, to make matters worse, some Communists denounced black articulated, classifying Wright as a bourgeois intellectual, assuming that he was educated and overly assimilated into white society, as stated in On Richard Wright’s Poetry.
In 1937, Richard Wright moved to New York and there he made new links with members of the Communist Party after it was established. He worked in the city guide, New York Panorama, 1938, by the Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA, and wrote an essay in Harlem. Then, Richard became the editor of the Daily Worker in Harlem. In summer and autumn more than two hundred of articles were written by him for the Daily Worker and he also helped edit a short literary magazine, New Challenge. As well, the year was a milestone for Wright as he developed a friendship with Ralph Ellison, which lasted for years and he received his first prize of five hundred dollars of Story magazine for his story “Fire and Cloud”.
After Wright received the award from Story magazine in early 1938, put aside his manuscript Lawd Today and fired his agent, John Troustine. Then, he hired Paul Reynolds, the famous agent Paul Laurence Dunbar, to represent him. In the meantime, Story magazine offered the Harper winning all stories for a book Wright and Harper decided to publish them.
Richard Wright gained national attention for his collection of four short stories titled “Uncle Tom’s Children Act” of 1938, which was based on some stories about lynching of blacks in the Deep South. It should be noted that the publication and favorable reception of the sons of Uncle Tom Wright improved the situation of the Communist. “He was appointed to the editorial board of The New Masses and Granville Hicks, a prominent literary critic and a communist sympathizer, introduced him to leftists in Boston. By May 6, 1938 the excellent sales had provided enough money to move to Harlem, where he began writing Native Son, 1940”. as stated in Richard Wright.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.