|
|
Article: Pledging allegiance to the imagination: Wright was a political activist, but his loyalty was to his art.(CULTURE)(author Richard Wright)
- Article from:
- Sojourners Magazine
- Article date:
- December 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Sojourners. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
I spent a good part of last summer with Richard Wright, the African-American author of the novel Native Son and the autobiography Black Boy. My extended visit with him happened because this fall I'm teaching a "Major Authors class focused on his work.
Wright died in 1960, at the age of 52. But he still lives through his written words, which leap with dramatic fire and prickly rage. Born into a family of sharecroppers near Natchez, Mississippi, Wright's early life went downhill from there. Humble is too mild a word for Wright's beginnings, but he rose to become one of America's most important authors.
In his late teens, Wright, already bitten by the ...