»:>
VOLU E TWO: LATER WORKS
In thi edition, ri ht' cl ic nd wrenching
utobio raphy Black Boy, bout the uthor' truggle to
e pe a life of poverty, ignorance, nd terror, i pubU h­
ed in its entirety for the first time.
Originally titled American Hunger, the utobiog­
raphy co isted of two p : "Soutlu!rnNight, "covering
Wright' life in th South before hi move to Chicago in
1927, and "The Horror and the Glory, "tracing hi arrival
in Chicago, appre ces ip writer, and involvement
and di illusion ent with Chica 0' Communist party.
Again, the Book-of-th -Month ub elected Wright'
work and again, they urged revi ions: thi time, the entire
econd half of the autobiography w to be excised.
(Wright noted in hi journal hi opinion that the Club
wa reacting to pre ure from the Communists.)
With another highly successful book under­
way, Wright agreed. He al 0 renamed hi
work Black Boy, noting, "It is hon t. Straight. And
many people ay it to themselves when they see a Negro
and wonder how he live . 'Black Boy' seems. to me to be
not only a title, but also a kind of heading of the whole
general theme." .
Although elections from "The Horror and the Glory"
appeared in magazines in the 1940s, the entire text did
not appear until 1977, when Harper & Row published it
eparately under the title American Hunger. R stored
here to its intended place as the second half of Black Boy,
it ignificantly change the tone and meaning of the
entire autobiography, rendering it a darker and more
complex work.
The prophetic political novel The Outsider (1953)
trace the doomed auempt of a Black man-mistakenly
believed to have died in a subway accident-to invent a
new, free life by as uming a different identity. Inspired
by French existentialist literature, this philo ophical
novel explores the themes of man's freedom, respon­
sibility and connection. to the past. Wright's final
typescript provides the text, which contains passages
removed in previous edi tions at the urging of Harper and
Brothers.
While many of the issues raised in 'compiling the e
texts were similar. to those raised when restoring any
other expurgated work of American literature, this edi­
tion marks the first time that restoration has been at­
tempted for an American writer where racism was a
factor of censorship.
The editor for both volumes is Arnold Rampersad,
professor of English and director of the Program in.
VOLU E ONE: EARLY WORKS
Th landm rk novel Native Son explod d upon the
literary cene in 1940. The tra dy of Bigger Thoma • a
Blac t na er from Chicago' South Side lum .e tab­
ll h d Wright a a I adin American author, and y t th
book known t millions of read i only a revi ed and
abbreviated version of what Wright originally wrote. Th
nov I wa the first by Bla k American author to b -
come best ell r. It w I 0 the first by a Black
American to be elected by the Book-of-the-Month Club,
which urged Wright to alter or cut veral page
including an entire eene of Bigger and a friend mastur­
bating in a movie theater and watching a suggestive
new reel of Mary Dalton, the daughter of Bigger'
employer and, later, hi victim.
By returning to th text of Wright's bound page
proofs, The Library of America recovered th e page
800, with them, Bigger's sexual nature. He is shown
responding more naturally to hi environment and ap­
pears more fully human, intelligent and comprehensible.
The new texts make clear the novel's ignificanee as the
first honest portrayal in American literature of a Black
man' exuaJity. "Wright understood," says editor Ar­
nold Rampersad, "that there could be no serious discus­
sion of race in America without reference to exuality, a
fact attested to by texts as far apart as Faulkner's Ab­
salom.Absalomi and Spike Lee's Jungle Fever. Whether
. or not the Club understood what it was doing, to nullify
Bigger's exual drive was to attempt to sabotag th
central power of Native Son as a commentary on race and
American culture."
Wright delivered the lecture "How Bigger Was
Born, "di cussing the psychology of oppres­
sion and the genesis, themes, and treatment of Native
Son, at Columbia University on March 21, 1940. It was
sub equently published in pamphlet form by Harper and
B thers and then added to future printings of Native Son.
Lawd Today! was Wright's first novel (published
posthumously by Walker & Co. in 1963, after having
been rejected by eight publishers during Wright'
lifetime). It interweaves news bulletins, ongs, and ex­
uberant wordplay into a kaleido copic history of one
Richard Wright
RICHARD WRIGHT: EARLY WORK
Edited by Arnold Ramper.ad
Publication date: October 1. 1111
Price: $35.00
Pagn: ISO
ISBN: 0-140450-�S-S
RICHARD WRIGHT: LATER WORKS
Edited by Arnold Ramper.ad
Publication date: October 1. 1991
Price: $35.00
Pagn: 928
'ISBN: 0-940450-67-4
American Studies at Princeton University. He was
awarded a 1991 MacArthur Fellowship and is author of
the Pulitzer Prize-nominated biography of Langston
• Hughes. He has provided extensive notes on the text and
a detailed chronology of Richard Wright's life.
THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA
RICHARD WRIGHT: WORKS 'comprises the fifty­
fifth and fifty-sixth volumes in The Library of America
series. The volumes are distributed to the trade by Pen­
guin USA and are available by subscription from The
Library of America. Prices range from $27.50 to $35.00.
The ubscription price for all volumes is $24.95 per
volume.
RICHARD WRIGHT: WORKS
Two-Volume Boxed Set Containing
EARLY WORKS and LATER WORKS
Edited by Arnold Ramperaad
Publication date: October 1, 1191
Price: $70.00
ISBN: 0-940450-75-5
.
.
ABOUT RICHARD WRIGHT
Richard Wright wrote, "I had ac­
cidentally blundered into the secret
black, hidden core of race relations"
in the United States. That core is this:
nobody is ever expected to peak
honestly about the problem." With
his explosive novel Native Son and
classic autobiography Black Boy,
Wright transformed America's un­
derstanding of racism and its tragic
consequences and distingui hed
himself as the twentieth century's
preeminent Black American writer:
Richard Nathaniel Wright was
born September 4,1908 on Rucker's avidly. He sought out the works ofH.
Plantation, a farm near Natchez, L. Mencken and was struck by the
Mississippi. He was the elder of two author's use of "words as weapons."
sons of Nathan Wright, an illiterate Reading Mencken led Wright to
sharecropper, and Ella Wilson other authors, including Theodore
Wright, a schoolteacher. . Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Sh rwood
Wright's childhood was marred Anderson, the elder Alexandre
by frequent moves and sudden Dumas, Frank Harris, and O. Henry.
upheavals. In 1911, his mother took In 1927, he moved to the South
him and his brother to live with her Side of Chicago, secured a job with
parent in Natchez. There, he ac- the postal service, and began writing
cidentally set fire to the house and regularly. In 1931, his short story
wa everely punished, a trauma he Superstition was published by
recounts at.the opening of Black Boy. Abbott's Monthly Magazine, a Black
In 1913, tho family moved to Mem- journal. The same year, Wright be­
phis, where his father abandoned came interested in the philosophios
them for another woman, leaving of local Communist organizers, par­
them destitute. ticularly those in the League of
Soon afterwards, his mother fell Struggle for Negro Rights.
seriously ill, suffering strokes and During the Depression of the
paralysis, and he was uprooted often, early 193CB, he was forced back into
living first in a Methodist orphanage, unskilled jobs (ditch-digging, street
then with his maternal grandparents, sweeping), but his literary and politi­
then with a succession of other rela- cal. pursuits flourished. He was
tives. His relationship with the rami- elected executive secretary of the
ly was often strained by the almost Chicago John Reed Club an4 soon
constant pectre of hunger (made joined the Communist party. He
worse by the financial demands of began publishing poetry in journals
his mother'S illness), and his including Left Front, Anvil, New
relatives' rigid Seventh-day Adven- Masses, Midland Left, and Interna­
tist beliefs, against which he tionall.iteratureetvs became a mem­
rebelled. ber of the national council of the
Wright's education was inter- newly-formed League of American
. rupted not only by his moves but also Writers. In �935, he �as hired by the
by poverty, which forced him out of . Federal Writers ProJ�t, part.of the
the classroom and into manual labor. Works Progre Adminlstration, to
Finally, though, Wright graduated res�rch the history of t� .Negro. in
from ninth grade, valedictorian of his Chi.ca,o �or. the American GUide
class at Smith Robertson Junior High Serie Illinoi volume. He al 0 be­
School in Jackson. He went on to came interested in theater, erving
high chool, but left after only a few literary advi er and pre "agent for
weeks to find work. He moved to the Negro Federa Theatre of
Memphis and became a.dishwasher Chicago and writing o�e-act .plays.
and delivery boy at the Merry Opti- The ame year, he subnutted his first
cal Company. nov�l to publishers, b�t was r:ejected.
While there, he continued to read (This novel was published 10 1963,
after his. death, as Lawd Today!)
In 1937, Wright broke with the
Communist party in Chicago over
artistic freedom and moved to New
York. There, he became Harlem
editor of the Daily Worker
newspaper, helped to launch New
Challenge magazine, and published
two controversial essays: "The
Ethics of Living Jim Crow" (which
was later denounced by the House
Special Committee on Un-American
Activities) and "Blueprint for Negro
Writing." His short story Fire and
Cloud won Story magazine's first
prize and later received the O. Henry
Memorial Award.
In 1938, Wright engaged literary
agent P!lul Reynolds, Jr., who ar­
ranged for a collection of storie ,
Uncle Tom's Children, to be publish­
ed by Harper and Brothers, begin­
ning right's long association with
that publisher and with editor Ed­
ward Aswell. Soon after, Wright
received a Guggenheim Fellow hip
and married Dhima Rose Meadman,
a modem dance teacher, whom he
divorced a year later.
In 1940, Native Son was publish­
ed by Harper and Brothers and of­
fered by the Book-of-the-Month
Club as one of two main elections.
The book old 215,� copies in
three weeks. Wright delivered a lec­
ture about the novel, "How Bigger
Was Born," at Columbia University,
later publi hed as a pamphlet by Har­
per and Brothers. The arne year, he
was elected vice-pre ident of the
League of American wri ters and
vice-president of the American
Peace Mobilization, opposed to
American involvement in World
War II.
In 1941, Wright received the
Spingarn Medal from the NAACP,
aw Native Son produced as a play
under the direction of 0 on Welles,
and married Ellen Poplar, a daughter
of Polish Jewish immigrants and a
Communist organizer. A year later,
their daughter Julia was born. Also
in 1942, the FBI began investigating
Wright's activities and would con­
tinue jo monitor him tor-the rest of
his life.
In 1945, Wright's autobiography,
Black Boy, was published by Harper
and Brothers and was number one on
the New York Times Best Seller List
from April 29 to June 6.
As Wright's career grew, his
relationships with authors and intel­
lectuals developed. He became
friendly with Nelson Algren and
ociologist Horace Cayton,
Theodore Dreiser, Ralph Ellison,
and Langston Hughes. He shared a
house near the Brooklyn Bridge with
Car on McCullers and George
Davis:
In 1946, Wright met Jean-Paul
Sartre and Claude Levi�tr8uss, who
extended, a official invitation to
visit France. There, he was wel­
comed into literary circles and
befriended by Gertrude Stein,
Simone de Beauvoir, Andre Gide,
and authors involved in the
Negritude movement. In 1947,
Wright decided to move permanent­
I y to Europe, where his econd
daughter, Rachel, was born in 1949.
In France, he became influenced
byexi tentiali t literature, which in-
pired his novel The Outsider, pub­
lished by Harper in 1953. He
extended hi political activities, first
joining Sartre and Camus in leading
the Ra semblement Democratiquc
See WRIGHT, B-7
II