BRUCENUGENT,MARGARETWALKER,DOROTHY
WEST, Frank Yerby, and other prominent writers
were involved.
Wright relocated to New York City in the late
1930s. He collaborated with Dorothy West on
NEWCHALLENGE,a revised version of the journal
Challenge that West had founded in 1934. His
essay “Blueprint for Negro Writing” was published
in the journal’s first and only issue. Wright began
to receive critical praise for his writing with the
publication of “FIRE ANDCLOUD,” a prizewinning
short story that appeared in Story Magazine.In
1938 he published UNCLETOM’SCHILDREN: FOUR
NOVELLASand secured a reputation as a gifted and
incisive writer. In 1940, as the Harlem Renaissance
came to a close and the new era of American mod-
ernism began, Wright published NATIVESON, a
phenomenal best seller. The book was hailed by
critics for its stark realism and studied examination
of African-American subjectivity. It also had its
critics, among them GEORGESCHUYLERand CARL
VANVECHTEN. Both men, who were well known
for their inventive representations of racial “real-
ity,” thought that Native Sonwas “an over-rated
book if there ever was one,” and Van Vechten
went so far as to suggest to HAROLDJACKMAN
that the book “has done the Negro an uncon-
scionable amount of harm in the minds of many an
ofay who has read it” (Kellner, 176).
In the years following the Harlem Renais-
sance, Wright continued to publish widely. Later
works included Black Boy(1945), Black Power: A
Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos(1954), and
the novels Pagan Spain (1958) and The Long
Dream(1958). In 1941 the NATIONALASSOCIA-
TION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEO-
PLEawarded him its most prestigious award, the
SPINGARNMEDAL. In 1947 he became an Ameri-
can expatriate when he took up permanent resi-
dence in France. Wright, who succumbed to a
heart attack, was buried in the Père Lachaise
Cemetery with a copy of Black Boy.
Bibliography
Fabre, Michel. The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Gayle, Addison. Richard Wright: Ordeal of a Native Son.
Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1980.
Hakutani, Yoshinobu. Critical Essays on Richard Wright.
Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982.
Kellner, Bruce, ed. Letters of Carl Van Vechten.New
Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1987.
Kinnamon, Kenneth, and Michel Fabre. Conversations
with Richard Wright.Jackson: University Press of
Mississippi, 1993.
Richard Wright Papers, Richard Wright Archive, Bei-
necke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale
University.
Walker, Margaret. Richard Wright: Daemonic Genius.New
York: Warner Books, 1988.Wright, Zara(fl. 1920)
A still obscure author who published two novels
during the Harlem Renaissance. BLACK ANDWHITE
TANGLEDTHREADSand its sequel, Kenneth,were
published in 1920. Wright dedicated both books,
which received positive reviews in the CHICAGO
DEFENDER,to her husband, J. Edward Wright.Wynbush, Octavia Beatrice(1894–1972)
A teacher, poet, and writer whose publications in-
cluded works for children. The biographical details
about Wynbush are gleaned from notes that pref-
aced some of her published works. She was born in
Pennsylvania and went on to graduate from Ober-
lin College. She later pursued an M.A. in English
at COLUMBIAUNIVERSITYand graduated in 1934.
She became a college teacher and taught at several
institutions, such as Straight College, Arkansas
State College, and Philander Smith College. In
later life she resided in Missouri and taught high
school. Biographers Lorraine Roses and Ruth Ran-
dolph, who have combed through the Oberlin Col-
lege archives, note that Wynbush married Lewis
Strong in 1963 when she was in her sixties.
Wynbush published several evocative short sto-
ries in THECRISISand in OPPORTUNITYduring the
late 1930s and early 1940s. She made her Harlem
Renaissance debut with “THE NOOSE,” an eerie
short story published in the December 1931 issue of
Opportunity. Her fiction, which often is set in
Louisiana and focuses on small communities and is-
sues of betrayal, seduction, and self-preservation, in-
cludes “BRIDE OFGOD,” “CONJUREMAN,” “THE
RETURN OF A MODERN PRODIGAL,” and “THEWynbush, Octavia Beatrice 569