Richard Wright

Richard Wright, a novelist, playwright, and social critic, was born into a poor family in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1908 and became one of the greatest writers of his generation through eloquent and powerful writing. His novels, drawn from his own experiences, were stunning depictions of poverty and racism in America. He moved to Chicago in 1927, aspiring to become a writer, and while working in a number of menial jobs, he pursued his writing and was eventually hired in 1935 by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration. Wright lived at several South Side locations, and his last residence in Chicago was the La Veta apartment building at 3743 South Indiana Avenue. Although he lived in Chicago for only a decade, his most compelling writing drew heavily on his Chicago experience. Native Son, published in 1940, shocked readers with its violent realism, describing the emotional forces that drive a young man to commit murder. Wright's Southern memories were the basis for Black Boy, published in 1945, a gripping account of his childhood and adolescence. He moved to New York City in 1937 and to Paris in 1947, and although his intellectual and literary interests expanded over the years, at the core was a deep concern for humanity and the nature of prejudice.

Chicago, Illinois · United States