Richard Wright Newsletter
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Richard Wright Newsletter Volume 5, Number 1 Fall(Winter, 1996 A Richard Wright Bibliography Supplement by Keneth Kinnamon © K.K. No portion of this text may be reproduced in any manner without permission from the author. A RICHARD WRIGHT BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1986 by Keneth Kinnamon Highlighted by Joyce A. Joyce's Richard Wright's Art of Tragedy and the . special Callaloo issue edited by Maryemma Graham, 1986 was an extraordinary year for Wright studies. Joyce's emphasis is on Wright's artistry in achieving a tragic effect in Native Son. This book belongs on the required reading list of anyone with a serious interest in our author. The same can be said of Graham's rich collection of some of the best papers delivered at the Mississippi symposium in 1985. Especially distinguished are Robert Bone on Wright and the "Chicago Renaissance"; Thadious Davis's comparison of Wright to that other great Mississippi novelist, William Faulkner; Miriam DeCosta Willis's classification of black women characters in Wright's fiction; Donald B. Gibson's careful analysis of the first chapter of Black Boy; James Miller 's Bakhtinian approach to Native Son; John Reilly's exploration of the relation of history to autobiography in The Color Curtain; and Jerry Ward's thoughtful assessment of past and future Wright scholarship. Notable articles also appeared elsewhere: William Burrison, Yoshinobu Hakutani, and Arnold Rampersad on Lawd Today; Robert Butler, Tony Magistrale, and Louis Tremaine on Native Son; Jacob Howland and Keneth Kinnamon on Black liQy; Dasha Nisula on The Outsider; and John Loftis on "The Man Who Was Almost a Man." At the end of the year the new film version of Native Son was released, occasioning a spate of reviews, mostly unfavorable. Finally, Frank E. Smith's publication of a 1937 letter from Wright to Dale Mullen, editor of a literary magazine in Oxford, Mississippi, reminds us of how acutely needed is a collection of Wright's correspondence. 1986 Native Son." New York: Harper & Row . Flyer providing free admission to 1. Andrews, William L. To ~ S the New York screening of the Free Story: The First Century Qf film NS. Afro-American Autobiography. ~ 1865. Urbana: University of 9. Appiah, Anthony. "Are We Ethnic? Illinois Press, p. 291. The Theory and Practice of American Mentions briefly sa. Pluralism." ~ American Literature Forum, 20 (Spring 2. Anon. "About the Author," in Summer), 209-224. Going to the Territory. By Ralph Review of Beyond Ethnicity: Ellison. New York: Random House, Consent and Descent in American p. 339. Culture mentioning Wbriefly (p. Biographical sketch of Ellison 216). mentioning Wbriefly. 10. Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. 3. Anon. Arts ~ Humanities Citation Cooper. "Narrative," in their The Index, 1985. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: St. Martin's Guide to Writing. Short Institute for Scientific edition. New York: St. Martin's Information, pp. 11418-11419. Press, pp. 386-403. Lists sixty-four items s.v. Reprint of 1985.15. WRIGHT R, not all on W. 11. Baker, Miriam, Donald Mcquade, 4. Anon. Index Translationum 34. and Nancy Sommers. "Richard Wright , Paris: UNESCO, pp. 89, 366, 807. 'Discovering Books,'" in their Lists translations of BB into Instructor's Manual to Accompany German and Finnish and 8H into Student Writers st Work and Student Russian. Writers st Work and in the Company of Other Writers. New York: St. 5. Anon. "Kaffir Boy by Mark Martin's Press, pp. 137-138. Mathabane." The Nation, 242 (3 May), Pedagogical notes on an excerpt 623. from sa. Advertisement claiming that "if Richard Wright had grown up in 12. [Baym, Nina]. "American South Africa, this is the book he Literature Between the Wars, 1914- would have written." 1945," in ill Norton Anthology of American Literature. Second edition, 6. Anon. "MisSissippi Writers Share shorter. Ed. Nina Baym et al. New Childhood Memories." The Southern York: Norton, pp. 1637-1671. Register, 4 (Winter/Spring), 3-4. Reprint of 1985.22. Notes W's inclusion in Mississippi Writers: Reflections 13. Bellman, Samuel Irving. "The Qf Childhood and Youth. American Short Story 1900-1945: A Critical History, edited by Philip 7. Anon. "This Week's N. Y. Stevick." Studies in Short Fiction, Showcase." Variety (31 December), p. 23 (Winter), 124-125. 10. Review mentioning Wbriefly. Reports gross receipts of $110,000 for the new liS film 14. Benson, Peter. Black Orpheus, during the first week. Transition, and Modern Cultural Awakening in Africa. Berkeley and 8. Anon. "Your invitation to see Los Angeles: University of 2 California Press~ pp. 25, 26. patrons (Embree, Rosenwald, Notes coverage in Black Orpheus Stark), and its journals of the W-Cesaire debate and (Abbott's Monthly, Lgf1 Front, comments on Ulli Beier's New Challenge, and NggrQ Story) . discussion in the same magazine Whereas the Harlem Renaissance of aa and BP. looked back to folklore and the Southern past, the Chicago group , 15. Bernstein, Margaret. "Breaking under W, looked toward the urban Hollywood's Race Barrier." USA ~ future and existential freedom. (30 December), pp. 10-20. Notes that the 1986 film version 20. Bradley, David. "On Rereading of NS has been criticized for its 'Native Son. "' I.hg New York Times "negative images of blacks." Magazine, 7 December, pp. 68, 70 , 71, 74, 78-79. 16. Berry, Faith. "A Question of Relates his four readings of the Publishers and a Question of novel over a period of fifteen Audience." The Black Scholar, 17 years. He originally hated it: (March-April), 41-49. "The plot was improbable, the Mentions Margaret Walker's narrative voice intrusive, the biography of Wand notes prurient language often stilted and the interests of some early white characters ... were stereotypical readers of NS. beyond belief" (p. 70). Even worse, Bigger's brutality was 17. Blau, Robert. "Starring Role a repulsive. The realization that Labor of Love." Ch i cago Tr i bune (10 whites thought Bigger plausible Apr i l), Sec. 5, pp. 1,3. was frightening. Bradley final ly Article on Victor Love, who plays regarded NS as a book of its Bigger in the film ~. Contrasts time, a sad reminder of the the actor with his privileged racism of the past and the middle -class background to blurred vision it created. Also Bigger. comments on BB and NS . Repr i nted: 1988 18. Bloom, Alexander. Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their 21. Brotman, Barbara . "New ' Native World. New York: Oxford University Son' Sad Old Truth to Guests. " Press, pp. 59, 65. Chicago Tribune (11 December), Sec. Mentions Wearly in his career. 2, pp. 1, 4. Interviews with members of the 19. Bone, Robert. "Richard Wright audience at the premier of the and the Chicago Renaissance." film ~, a benefit for the United Callaloo, 9 (Summer), 446-468. Negro College Fund. Most Argues for a Chicago Renaissance confirmed the work's portrayal of (1935-1950) following the Harlem racism in Chicago. Renaissance (1920-1935) as an integral part of African American 22. Brown, Beth. "A Daughter's literary history. Wwas its Geography. By Ntozake Shange; Black central figure and guiding Women Writers g1 Work. By Claudia spirit, but Bone deals also with Tate; Qyr Ni9i ~ Sketches from the its other creative writers, its Life .Qf ~ Free Black. Ed. Henry social milieu of migrants, its Louis Gates." ill Journal, 29 sociological connections (Park, (March), 378-386 . Wirth, Cayton, Drake), its Mentions briefly W in Ntozake 3 Shange's poem "Take the A Train." Wuses colors (especially green), numbers (especially three), and 23. Burns, Edward, ed. ~ Letters objects as devices to enhance of Gertrude .s..t.tln and Y.rl m this pattern. The novel is yechten, 1913-1946. Vo-l~ · 2. New structurally sound, balancing York: Colu~~ia University Press, pp. comic and tragic elements. 768, 769, 771, 772, 775-776, 778, 780, 781, 784, 786, 788-789, 790, 27. Butler, Robert James. "The 796, 798, 806, 808, 811, 816, 819- Function of Violence in Richard 823, 825, 826, 827, 829. Wright's Nat iye ~." Bill American Van Vechten and Stein comment ~jter~Jure £ru:ym, 20 (Spring extensively on Wfrom March 1945 Summer), 9-25. to Stein's death sixteen months Far from being gratuitous, later. Both express admiration violence in W's novel is for Wand his work, Stein saying carefully controlled to express of UTC that "I'm mad about it, Bigger's personality split there is a tremendous mastery in between romantic aspiration and the thing" (p. 789). By late June naturalistic entrapment. His of 1946, however, Stein is relation to Mary reveals the expressing reservations because W first, his relation to Bessie the "does not seem to me very Negro" second. In killing them, he is (p. 827). also destroying two aspects of himself. In Book Three he strives 24. Burns, Landon C., Janet P. to transcend both "shallow Alwang, and Elizabeth Buckmaster. romanticism" and "confining "The Twelfth (1985) Supplement to a naturalism" so as to achieve Cross-Referenced Index of Short wholeness, but the final scene Fiction Anthologies and Author-Title shows that he falls short. Listings." Studies in Short Fiction, 23 (Spring), 225-363. -- . - - -.-- 28. Byrd, Rudolph. "Continued Lists two items on W (p. 263). Relevance."CallaJoQ, 9 (Fall), 751- 752. 25. Burr, Nelson R. "New Eden and Favorable review of Michel New Babylon: Religious Thoughts of Fabre's Ihg WQrlQ Q[ Richard American Authors: A Bibliography Wright· - - -- - - VII." .H.istorjcaJ Magaztne .Qf w Protestant Episcopal Churc,b, 55 29. Canby, Vincent. "Screen: 'Native (September), 213-247. Son,' Based on Wright's Novel." The Notes dissertations treating Wby ~~~ Y9r~ lJmes (24 December), p. Richard Lehan (p. 217), Cynthia C14. Janis Smith (p. 244), Esther Mixed review criticizing the Alexander Terry (p.