Encyclopedia of African American History

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1
274  Culture, Identity, and Community: From Slavery to the Present

In 1939, he married Dhimah Rose Meadman, a Rus-
sian-Jewish dance teacher, with author Ralph Ellison as his
best man. Wright started to work on the novel Little Sis-
ter, but it was never published. He spent a short time with
his wife in Mexico, but the marriage dissolved aft er a few
months. He returned to New York and divorced in 1940.
While returning to New York, Wright paid a visit to his fa-
ther, whom he had not seen in 25 years. In his 1945 auto-
biography, Black Boy, which sold over 400,000 copies, he
describes this visit in great detail. Th e novel also describes
his determination to borrow books from an all-white li-
brary, by forging permission notes.
He fi nished Native Son in 1940, and it became an im-
mediate international success, although it was banned in
Birmingham, Alabama, libraries. Th e novel gained Wright
both popularity and fortune in its fi rst weeks of publication,
selling 215,000 copies. It was also selected as a Book of the
Month best seller. Native Son encouraged African Ameri-
cans to reveal their discontent with the prejudices that they
faced in American society. A stage adaptation of Native
Son was written from 1940 to 1941, in collaboration with
Paul Green. Wright was discontent with Paul Green’s pro-
duction, so Wright and John Houseman revised it, Orson
Welles staged it, and it ran on Broadway successfully in the
spring of 1941. Wright won a prestigious Spingarn Medal,
in 1941, from the National Association for the Advance-
ment of Colored People.
Wright married his second wife, Ellen Poplar, in
1941, and the couple had two daughters. In 1947, he and
his family moved to Paris and stayed there for the rest of
his life. While in Paris, Wright continued to enjoy read-
ing and took to existentialism. He produced three nov-
els during this period, but none were as well received as
his earlier works. In 1960, Wright suff ered a heart attack
and died on November 28, at the age of 52. He is buried
in Paris.
See also: Ellison, Ralph; Hughes, Langston; McKay, Claude

Nicole Joy DeCarlo

Bibliography
Fabre, Michel. Th e Unfi nished Quest of Richard Wright. 2nd ed.
Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Rampersad, Arnold, ed. Richard Wright: A Collection of Critical
Essays. Englewood Cliff s, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.
Rowley, Hazel. Richard Wright: Th e Life and Times. New York:
Henry Holt, 2001.
Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius. New York:
Amistad, 1988.

in the John Reed Club, a Communist literary organization,
and he became an offi cial member in 1933. He then pub-
lished revolutionary poetry and short stories in Left Front,
New Masses, and Anvil. By 1935, he found work with the
Federal Negro Th eater, under the Federal Writers’ Project.
He wrote some short stories and a novel during this time,
but they were not published until aft er his death. Wright
moved to New York, in 1937, and became Harlem editor
of a Communist paper, Daily Worker, and coeditor of Left
Front. He also helped establish the magazine New Chal-
lenge. In 1938, he published Uncle Tom’s Children, which
won him fi rst prize for best book-length manuscript from
Story magazine. He published “Bright and Morning Star” in
New Masses and soon aft er became part of the magazine’s
editorial board. Wright eventually faulted the Communist
party for not understanding that it relied on African Amer-
icans for support. He left the party in 1942 and in 1944 pub-
lished a related essay in the Atlantic Monthly: “I Tried to
Be a Communist.” In 1949, it was printed again as Th e God
Th at Failed, as a collection of essays by ex-Communists. In
1953, he also published Th e Outsider.


Richard Wright (photographed in 1939 ) is best known for his fi rst
published novel, Native Son. (Library of Congress)


http://www.ebook777.com

http://www.ebook777.com - Encyclopedia of African American History - free download pdf - issuhub">
Free download pdf