Richard Wright


(Sept. 4, 1908-Nov. 28-1960)

The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.

Winner of the Springarn Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Story Magazine Award, Wright’s highly-lauded novel Native Son deals with racial inequality in Chicago’s ghettos, as, to some extent, does his memoir, Black Boy. Bigger Thomas, Native Son’s protagonist, is a victim and a criminal living in utter poverty on the South Side, and through him Wright explores the intricacies of societal conditioning in the violence that characterized impoverished black neighborhoods. The Book of the Month Club chose Native Son as its first book written by an African-American. Wright has had a Chicago school named after him, and been featured on a U.S. Postal stamp.

2010 Inductee: Named on 6 Ballot(s)

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New York Times obituary

Richard Wright Papers at Yale University Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library