RICHARD WRIGHT SPECIAL :31 /\ C:< :30'( ISSUE

Volume 3, Number 3 December 1994 Wright Film Biography Released

Richard Wright-Black Boy, the new film biography of Richard Wright, premiered on December 2, 1994 at the Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson, Mississippi, Wright' s former school house. Attending were Julia Wright and her son, Malcolm, and Joanna Newsome, Wright's half-sister, now over 90 years old and living in Port Gibson, MS. The gala event brought together a host of friends of Mississippi Educational Televi­ sion, the film's sponsor and the production staff, notably the executive producers, Jef Judin and Guy Land and the film 's director Madison Davis Lacy, Ir. of Firethorn Pro­ ductions. Richard Wrighl-Black Boy made its tele­ vision debut December? onMississippi Edu­ cational Television and will air nationally on PBS in 1995. Funding was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Corpo­ ration for Public Broadcasting. The Ford Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Black Prograrruning Consortium, Southern Educational Commu­ nications Association, Independent Televi­ sion Service, and The Foundation for Public Broadcasting in Mississippi. It is distributed by California Newsreel of San Francisco. Richard Wright-Black Boy will be shown at the Modern Language Association Con­ vention in San Diego, the College Language Association Conference in Baton Rouge, Northeastern University in Boston, and at other educational venues to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Wright's autobiography. To celebrate this landmark event for Wright studies, the Richard Wright Circle, which has been actively working for the past three years to bring together an international community commilted to furthering scholar­ ship on the life and work of Richard Wright, has produced this Special Issue dedicated to Photo of Richard Wright by Carl Van Vechten c/o California Newsreel both the book and the fllm .•

Special Issue Page 1 Richard Wright: A Cinematic Life Julia Wright reviews film biography "He stood in a box in the reserved section of a movie house ... . These people were frameworkofa T.V .documentary. And laughing at their lives, he thought with amazemen t. They were shouting and so, along with the excitement of the yelling at the animated shadows of themselves .... No; it could not be done; he challenge and the willingne s to help, could not awaken them. He sighed." came the awareness that wearing three - Richard Wright, "The Man Who Lived Underground" hats (as the wri ter's daughter, as one of the interviewees, and as Special Con­ sultant) was going to be a difficulL These words were written by Rich­ The mind boggle to think that his acrobatic feat to say the least I was ard Wright almost a decade before he short life, spanning so much history, eventually to relinquish the Special invested so much of his creative and was a series of se ular and humanistic Consultan y: perhaps I knew too much performing energy into the 1951 film rites of passage beyond the power hun­ about my father's painful day-by-day version of Native Son. Yet, almost gry TUsades which threaten not to end ordeal to wish lO be associated with presciently, they reflect Wright's dis­ with the century: racism , nazism, com­ surgical editing decisions taken at a illusion with the sea change the fllm munism, colonialism, and religious more detached distance. And it would media of that day wrought in oneof the fundamentalism. have been difficult LO follow the logic most powerful novels of this century. All this, I felt, was great stuff, excit­ of these decisions without access to aL Wright did n04 in the end, recognize ing material for an educational docu­ least a wide selection of the rushes. lL his own stamp in the truncated version mentary. And so, needless to say, I is to the film team' credit, that we of Native Son which directorial cuts was delighted when, five years ago, a were able to work out a more flexible and cold war censorship had turned Mississippi/ETV production team and informal approach to my advisory into a mediocre whodunit Also the headed by Guy Land and Madison position-which leaves me today more criticism of his portrayal, in the fi lm,of Lacy approached the Richard Wright freedom and objectivity to review both his own central character, Bigger Tho­ Estate with a documentary project. I the excellent points and the fla ws of mas, was blunt and hurtful- and did also welcomed the news that a solid the completed fi m. not always take into account the chal­ budget had been allocated by the Na­ First and foremost, the documen­ lenge faced by our first African Ameri­ tional Endowment for the Humanities tary- BlackBoy- is a fitLing tribute to can best-selling author in the acting of and other sources. As it turned out, this the fiftieth anniversary of the publica­ his own literary hero-which was un­ funding enabled a wide range of inter­ tion of the book. And the fil m is , in precedented in Hollywood-dominated views to be conducted on both sides of more ways than one, true to the ambi ­ film history. the Atlanti ,in time to capture on cel­ tious standards it set for itself. It is One cannot help being aware of the luloid the stories and recollections of refreshing to find that in these days of screen potential of many of Wright's those who had, as peers or contempo­ hysterical zapping mania when the tak­ works, but I am personally convinced raries, crossed Wright's path in vary­ ing of one's own tel visual time is an that Richard Wright's own life-story is ing degrees of closeness. HislOri cally, act of creative courage-the film,B/ack supremely cinematic. The historical I fell the project was beautifully timed Boy, takes the full hour and a half adventure in time and space which for I was aware of the fact that succes­ required to teU a complex but intensely took a barefooted predelinquent hun­ sive generations of witnesses often take dramatic story. Another real quality gry black boy from the southern kitch­ their stories with them. Then, shortly which makes the fi lm highly recom­ ens where his mother worked early in after I formaUy accepted serving as mendable is the sheer quantity of inter­ the century-4O the literary paternity Special Consultant to the film, Madi­ views Madison Lacy and his sensitive of Bigger-a mythic urban character son Lacy received an Emmy for his cameraman, N. Killingsworth, col­ who still haunts America- begged film Eyes on the Prize: the project was born lected both in lh US and Europe. I treatmenL His story took him from the with a silver spoon in its mouth. consider some of those interviews to post-feudal rural South to the sophisti­ At no time have I had cause lO be anthology pieces. Another out­ cated intellectual turmoil of post-war regret my initial enthusiasm, but it is standing quality ofthe8/ackBoy docu ­ France, from Roosevelt's New Deal to true, I had not realized that, asa mem­ mentary is the attention paid to the the historical Bandung Conference at ber of the family, I was both too close main turning-points in Richard the epicenter of the first rumblings of to the subject of the film- and too Wright's life: the national events which third world national independence ris­ distant from the technical and creative the publication ofNative Son andB/ack ings, from the harassment of choices which must necessarily be Boy turned out LO be, the decision to McCarthyism to the disillusion with made to fit a complex life-story into join the Communist Party and the rea­ the power politics of communism . ... the time-structure and production sons for leaving it, and- above all-

Page 2 Richard Wright Newsletter the complex many-layered motivations longer hear what Kwame Nkrumah, mentary is a little like a new house not for choosing exile. Last but not least, Eric Williams, C.L.R. James, Franz quite "lived in" as far as its main char­ an unparalleled search for television Fanon, Gertrude Stein, Jean-Paul acter is concerned, I heartily recom ­ and newsreel archival footage featur­ Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus, mend it because it gives us, at least, a ing Richard Wright turned up some Simone de Beauvoir, and Chester few celluloid stepping-stones towards real nuggets in the form of a few rare Himes would have had to say. And so, a living knowledge of Richard Wright. and precious celluloid minutes show­ for that very reason, the few surviving I particularly recommend it to the pa­ ing a very private, guarded man who, French witnesses to those Jesser known tience of all young viewers who may having been once bitten by the me­ later years should have been given wish to find out what happened to the dium, may have been twice shy for that some space: Maurice Pons, Suzanne child who started out burning curtains reason. Lipinska, Rem i Dreyfus, Jean and killing a kitten-and who ended up Overall care and attention paid to Pouillon, ctc. advising prime ministers and simply the accuracy of biographical detail is However, apart from four brief changing American culture .• attributable, I think, to a bright galaxy dramatizations of cinematic moments of scholar-consultants. But paradoxi­ in his best known fiction and poetry, I cally, if the film does fail in part, it is admit I do miss more of Wright's exactly here, where its ambition of own words-especially from his non­ excellency is at its highest. The film's fiction. Since li vc footage of him and panel of academic advisors was exem­ tapes of his voice were so difficult to plary of the best expertise available in come by, why not simply have filled terms of modem and postmodem schol ­ the gap with more of some of the most arship on Wright, but did not count in pow rful words African American lit­ its midst a single scholar or intellectual erature has produced? I feel Wright's who was a witness to the texture of his words would have been needed to voice and the sound of his laughter . . . "kick off' academic discussion w her­ From books and articles, we can seek ever it is undertaken. After all, if the out many brilliant interpretations of soul of a writer is in the words he Wright's genius, but it seems to me leaves behind, then a more li beral use that what we ask of a 11m on Wright is of Wright's actual words (publ ished something different-a few more of or unpublished) could have carried those fl eeti ng moments of truth which the story forward at a liv lier pa e a carefully poised camera captures well than the rather neutral third person but somewhat hurriedly: for instance, narrative is able to achieve. that marvelous old lady who went to And what about the school and school with him and who reminisces young adul t audiences this educational with a chuckle about the adolescent documentary was made for? Will the charisma of his story-telling. We want sophisticated distillation of Wright's more of that old lady with the twinkle words-as-weapons by their elders of memory in her eyes and less of what (most of the interviewees are aged the scholars think of it all. We want between 50 and 80 years) hold their more spotlights on those who were attention sufficientl y to awaken their there and a little less time given to interest for the least academic of writ­ those who comment- albeit bril­ ers? No school child, no high school liantly- about those who were there. or un iversity student-although many One analy is or two could have been were fil med- has made it to the final weeded out to mak room for instance version I was shown in October. Also for Joanna, Richard Wright's half-sis­ I do miss a statement or two from our ter who believed in him and is still young upcoming generation of Afri­ around to say it. Similarly, the fi lm can American writers and film mak­ interviews of the survivors of the group ers-at least those who could have of French intellectuals who welcomed spoken about the enduring temptation the writer to exile in Paris in 1946-7- to become Bigger-and of the endur­ and subsequently made him feel at ing need of brotherhood with Bigger: home-have not seen the light of day. Nathan M Call,BrentStapiesorEdgar So many are now gone who could have Wideman and John Singleton to name spoken about the man on the other side only a few. of the mirror, in exile: we can no And although, the completed docu-

Special Issue Page 3 • Filming Wright • An Interview with Madison Davis Lacy

On November4,1994,KeileyNorman Richard Wright in this film ? biographies, I made a note thatRichard traveled to New York on special as­ MDL: Essentially there was very little Wright was sent to Sweden in c. 1954 signment for the Richard Wright News­ footage of Wright. He died before the by his publishers. So I figured because letter and met with Emmy winner 1960 Black Consciousness movement it was a professional publicity lOur for Madison Davis Lacy, Jr., writer, di­ gave more focus to Black writers. By one of his books, somebody might rector, and producer of Richard contrast lhere is a weallh of material on have filmed him. We called lhe S wed­ Wright- Black Boy at his Firethorn James Baldwin. There is a little bit of ish televisionarchlves and sureenough, Productions office. sloff on Chester Himes. And there is bingo, we gave them a date, a year, a alot of footage on 60s writers like time and there was Richard Wright. KeUey Norman: Can you describe Baraka, etc. I relied on what is called The same thing wilh the National Ar­ how your involvement with thisprojcct collateralization, smoke and mirrors, chives. After a generic search, we originated? which doesn't denigrate the material. hadn 'L come up with anything. I knew It is a way of shaping a story and that he had spoken in 1940-41 at the Madison Davis Lacy: Mississippi fashjoning an idea or expression so American Writers conference. I fig­ Educational Television had gone to a that what's missing in the middle ured- because you don't know- that national funder, NER, to try and raise shark, that footage, was in this library. money for this project. They didn't succeed the flrst time out because lhere u KN: What process did you have to were some elements missing out of I hope this film places engage to create the docudrama? their effort. One of the elements lhat was missing was a producer that they Richard Wright back at MDL: Tcal l it a documovie, and the felt could do this job. After I fmished last in the public con­ reason I do is not because I am try fig LO working on Eyes on the Prize II, I was fashion a fancy name, but because we asked by one of my executive produc­ sciousness in a stronger tried to breathe life into 4 or 5 pieces of ers to consider working with METV '.f Richard 's work. Some people would on this ftlm. position. call them recreations or representa­ tions, but they are imaginative render­ KN: What kind ofresearch did you do ingsofhis work on film . Forexample, to produce lhe script? really isn't missing. It's lhere, but il 'S there is a scene (rom "Big Boy Leaves really missing . For exam ple, you are Home"; the camera dis olves lhrough MDL: Basically, I read everything I talking about somebody or something. orne of the words on paper to a pond, could. I had read Black Boy and Native The character is there, and it's felt as a and we excerpt a dramatic portion of Son between high school and college. presence, but the trick is to make you his work. Big Boy leaves home, he For this film, I read biographies by feel it wilhout it actually being there. runs through the woods, he jumps into Constance Webb, Margaret Walker and The third act of the fi lm shows how I the ditch,looks over and he sees Bobo Michel Fabre. I was looking for a structured a way for that footage to be burning at the stake. This dramatic story- when something happens to used; it pops up and all of a sudden you moment gives rise to Wright's words. somebody you like, as Stephen King see Richard or Richard appearing in says. I was looking for moments wilhin Native Son, the original version in 1951 Doing lh is film presen ted another prob­ that story where there are certain things film . I designed a way to use what's lem: the film literally should have been that happen that I could build up to and integral to the story, of course , but so done 25 years ago when the actual show that the script has energy. So that he pops out and he is real all of a witnesses could tell you stories about when you are doing research you are of sudden. Richard Wright. But many of these two minds: you are trying to learn the people are gone. So Margaret Walker material so you can figure out what the KN: Getting back to lhe footage issue, assumes a prominent role in lhe first story is and then try to see through the how did you know to go to the National act of this film because she was there. material so you can discem what within Archives? Did you stumble upon this She saw where he lived and was close this story makes it filmic. footage? to him. Frankly, Margaret was ailing when I interviewed her, but we knew KN: How do you use film footage of No. When going through all of these we had to get lhis interview. There are

Page 4 Richard Wright Newsletter Mak • ng RI CHARD WRIGHT beautiful moments in this interview. your film to be a felt There were acouple of moments where thing. The best films are she gets emotional because she has a felt things. Once you particular viewpoint on Richard. get people working on an emotional level rather KN: What standards or criteria did than an intellectual level, you set for yourself as a film biogra­ you got 'em! Earlier, I pher? was talking about Mar­ garet Walker in an emo­ MDL: My purpose was to do as cred­ tional moment. Ri hard ible a rendering of his life and literary is having a conversation story as I possibly could, given the with her about leaving resources we had at hand. the time we Chicago. We know he had Lo complete the project, and the leaves Chicago. I know absence of footage and live first-per­ that she is a direct wit­ son characters. Everything we do on ness to the fac t thal he film must rock and roll appropriately left Chicago. Atthe end on film, so one of the tests at the rough of the conversation she cut stage was to show it to young black talks about the job at the men and women between 15 and 18 post ffice which Wright Writer, Director, Producer "Dave" Lacy years of age, some of whom had heard had been struggling for of Richard Wright, but most of whom years La get. And she had not. If they could stick with it or said, "He looked at me, and he said, my tellingofil, I knew I had something 'Wh n I leave I will hay forty dollars KN: Why do you use the 1986 version that everyone could access. As it tu rned in mypockel.' He said, 'I don'tknow if toward the beginning of the documen­ out they had the most valid criticism of I am making the right decision.'" Mar­ tary rather than the 1951 version with all at the rough cut stage. One of the garet said, "How can you not be mak­ Wright acting in it? things was that they needed to hear ing the right decision-You are going to about the southern experience before your fame and fortune. And he said. 'I MDL: I needed both and was lucky the second act, for example. So I knew you would say lhal Margaret , .. enough [0 have both. I felt that the changed it. We had an advisory meet­ You know, you grab them and you pull newer versioll was contemporary foot­ ing with folks like Arnold] Ramp­ them in! You make decisions about age and it would draw people into the ersad and [Keneth] Kinnamon, and the sLOry and about emotional moments. film biography a lot stronger. Besides, they basically said to change some If you feel it and you can heighten it so it had scenes in there that I needed Lo other things so that it makes more other people can feel it too, then your make my points early on in the flim : sense. I never thought that the film fi lm is working. Fear was the driving force behind race belonged to me; it belongs La the audi­ relations in this country . The film foot­ ence. I am the instrument by which KN: How did you getJ.A. Preston to age also establishes continuity between this thing gets made and hopefully will narrate? Wright's text and Marye mma be available to anybody for all time. Graham's comments about the South. MDL: He's a friend of mine. Iknew She says, "And it was a fear of what KN: When you were talking about as a narraLOr he was going LO work at it. might happen La you if you stepped out leaving certain material in during the There is a moment in the film where he of line. And even though it was Chi­ editorial process, the material thaL you actually has to act with his voice: the cago, it was still the South where step­ did leave in, how did you decide what scene where Bigger Thomas is pULting ping out of line could cost you your to emphasize? Mary in the furnace. I wanted an ex­ life" - and bang we show footage of cerpt from Native Son , and I could the rural South. She mentions the MDL: It's a feeling process; it's a have had a straight narration, but J .A. South, she talks about the South, and whole person process, in terms of your uses his dramatic voice to quote those we take you South. I wanted to save head, heart, and guL Once you im ­ famous words, "What I KILLED for I the 1951 movie version for later. I merse yourself in all of this material am. I didn't know I WAS ALLIIIVEE needed the 1951 footage to place us in and once you've done all the research, in this world until I felt things STRONG time and also to illustrate another point: you become consumed. You want ENOUGH to kill for." Continued on Page 6

Special Issue Page 5 Interview with Dave Lacy it..well, in retrospect, maybe I could that shot would serve to reinforce what Continued rrom Page 5 have dwelled on it a little bit more was being said by Cedric Robinson: [laugh]. But that is the way I express "In a sense, Richard was extraordinar­ Wright had not lost a lot of his creative myself, and that's the way 'I express ily uncomfortable with what he saw [in power; he was constantly changing, myself in films. It's a learning process Africa}." It was a visual way of saying constantly growing. Also, we get a for me, and I'm developing a style that what Richard also says in many differ­ chance to hear his voice, which many isn't all that unique necessarily be­ ent ways in his book: that he was un­ people may not have heard before. cause I am still working within the comfortable, a realization that comes envelope, but I got ideas and nOlions outofhis book,BlackPower. Because KN: Did you ask Julia Wright any about how to s!Tetch and expand the it held so long it makes the audience questions that would allow her to talk envelope in the works I will do in the uncomfortable too and that creates the about her personal relationship wilh years to come. Some things Itested out kind of tension you then relieve when her father? She talked about her father and !Tied in the Wright piece worked, you go to the nex t shot, or the next as the writer, and I didn't geta sense of and they give me reason to consider scene or the next piece of information. their personal relationship. doing riskier kinds of stu ff. For ex­ Finding ways to create tension and ample, the last scene of The Long finding ways to relieve tension over an MDL: She never said, 'my father' or Dream is there for a reason: We have arc 0 a story makes the film go, which 'my dad.' 1think that's what happened taken you down, down, down. The boy with that family: Richard is a memory is being spied on , hehas been forced to who is a part of the famiJy and, at the go back to nonfiction, he's gotten sick, same lime, apart from the family. This he's depressed. His family lives in " At one point [Wright] was the mode through which she chose England and he lives alone in Paris. becomes the most famous to communicate. You know where this film is going, right? But I basically wanted to say, black man in America on KN: I saw a documentary of Frederick "He ai n' t lost it!" So when you come Douglass recently on PBS, and I no­ to The Long Dream, and all of a sud­ the strength o/will, on the ticed, unlike your film biography, the den, wham, it fl owers up, and you strength of intelligence, on director used 'billboards' to separate basically say, "Maybe it disproves the one scene from another. Did you con­ notion that he lost touch with hi black the stren th of his an er sider using this technique? roots," and we see he ain' t lost touch with it. And he returned. Yet, if he had and the desire to be some- MDL: [B illboarding] is a legitimate lived in this country during Lhe fifties tung.J . " technique to pace a mm, but I'm trying he may have expressed The Lon g to create documentaries to work like a Dream differently than he did. But movie works. I wanted this film to there is still power in The Long Dream. makes the story work. reflect my personali ty and the way I I wanted a scene that woke you up, like to pace my statements and expres­ totally unexpected. But il has all been KN : I understand you are doing other sions. Like movies, you get to a certain building rationally and becoming more film biographies. Why are you doing point and you send your material in intricate. By the time you get to The this series, and why do you think it is another direction. You are constantly Long Dream, it' s like you are in the the right moment to do this series? finding ways to maintain the viewers' movie and it 's totally unexpected. The interest. It would have been easy to get viewer comes to a film hoping and MDL: I feel it is an appropriate niche to the flISt act when Margaret says, expecting the unexpected. If you give for me in the pantheon of filmmakers "And he always said, 'I want my life to them the unexpected during the course out here. r think I have learned a lot count for something,'" to go into some of your film you are going to be very from doi ng the Wright documentary. I soft piano music and drift away, but suc essful. don't th ink there are enough biogra­ then it is even more interesting to gel to phies of black writers, and I have been that point and send the material in KN: I was uncomfortable during the disappointed in the biob'Taphics I have another direction. Because all of a lengthy close-up of the African seen. There has never been a good one sudden he is in New York. The bright woman's breasts. Was that a deliber­ on Langston Hughes, and I have a way lights are there, the big city is there, ate move on your part? of telling that story that will be extraor­ and the music isjammin'. Thepointis: dinarily interesting; however, I like the He's moved on! He's left Chicago and MDL: Some say we're holding on too James Baldwin biography, "The Price Margaret says so, but she says so with long. We held on that shot for two of the Ticket." Chester Himes: I al­ a statement that tells you everything: "I reasons: the practical reason was that ways liked his work because he always want my life to count for something." the picture covered some audio edits. represented anoth r side of Wright's Boom! You don't have to dwell on The aesthetic reason was that we knew approach to protest literature. There is

Page 6 Richard Wright Newsletter a brand new biography of Chester come away with after seeing this film be something. As Jerry Ward says at Himes' life that I think is revealing. I biography? one point, if there is a lesson for any­ think there are some stories that need body in this, you don't have to have a to be told like Zora Neale Hurston's. I MDL: I hope this film places Richard Ph.D. or master's degree tobea writer: am nota literary wiz; I'm no maven. I back at last in the public consciousness Writing comes out of the gut. You am a film maker; I'm a story teller, and in a stronger position. Here is a guy have to feel it and you have Lo want 10 that's all I try to be. Being normal in who came out of the deep South and do it. I think Richard felt a lot of that fashion and not overly academic was a sharecropper's son. He is a connection between his life and the about it, I think I can bring to it a kind magnificent dude! At one point he circumstances of every other black of intensity of interest and curiosity becomes the most famous black man person's life, and he struggled might­ that I can render on film that people in America on the strength of will , on ily and he expressed that in such a way will gel. the strength of intelligence, on the that people would understand what KN: What do you hope viewers will strength of his anger and the desire to black America was going through .•

Black Boy: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective

Critical Reception of Black Boy: I Chronology I An Historical Perspective 1940 Native Son published by Harper and Brothers March 1 and is offered by the Book-of-the-Month Club as one of its two main selections. In "One rises from the reacting of such a book three weeks it sells 215,000 copies. with mixed LhoughlS . Ri chard Wright uses vigorous and straightforward English . .. 1943 Accompanied by Horace Cayton, Wright goes to Fisk University, But if the book is meant to be a picture and Nashville, in April to deliver talk on his experiences with racism. a warning, even then, it misses its possible Strong reaction from the audience leads Wright to begin autobiogra­ effectiveness because it is as a work of art phy, which he named American Hunger. so patently and terribly overdrawn." -W.E.B. DuBois 1944 Book-o -the-Month Club te lls Harper that it will accept only the first Weekly Book Review, 3/4/45 section of American Hunger, describing Wright's experiences in [he South; Wright agrees to this arrangement. Changes title LO Black Boy. "Richard Wright's Black Boy is a remark­ Publication of "I Tried to Be a Communist" in Atlantic Monthly ably fme book . . . .Bu t if BlackBoy were no (August-September). more than a document of misery and op­ pression. it would not have the distinction 1945 BlackBoy: A Record a/Childhood and Youth published by Harper and which in fact it does have." Brothers in March to enthusiastic reviews. The book is number one on -Lionel T illing the bestseller list from April 29 to Jun 6 and stirs controversy when it The NaJion, 4/7/45 is denounced as obscene in the U.S. Senate by Democrat Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi. Published excerpt of American Hunger in Made ­ "A tradition is at work here. Emerging mniselle (September) and "Early Days in Chicago" in Cross Section. from slavery or wretchedness. a young man srumbles and struggles toward self­ 1946 By January 19,Black Boy has sold 195,000 copies in the Harper trade awareness. Spokesman for an exploited edition and 351,000 through the Book-of-the-Month Club, making it people, he makes his life into an emblem of the fourth best selling nonfiction ti tle of 1945. its exploitation- memory becomes myLh ." -Irving Howe 1948 Gallimard translation of Black Boy wins French Critic's Award. New York Times Book Review Wright travels to Rome and to Switzerland, for the publication of Black 6(26(17 Boy .

.. A strength of American Hunger is the fact 1960 Dies at Eugene Gibez Clinic in Paris of a heart attack shortly before that many ofWright's insights of two gen­ 11:00pm, November 28. Cremated, along with a copy of Black Boy, erations ago about the urban north have at the Pere Lachais cemetery December 3, where his ashes are interred. held true and steady until this time." -Thomas A. Johnson 1977 American Hunger published by Harper & Row . New York Times. 7(2(1 7 1991 Library of America publishes the complete aurobiography, Black Boy 'The publication of this new edition is not (American Hunger), including for the first time, the second section, just an editorial innovation, it is a m3J or "The Horror and the Glory." event in American literary history." -Andrew Delbanco Compiled from Black Boy , published by HarperPerennial. 1993. The New Republic. 1993

Special Issue Page 7 ~ItZO VW 'U01SOg I~H d['B.3uqq.3!N 0817 dpll:) 14.3PM p.nnp~}I ~!SJaA!Un UJalSeaLI+JON RJ

Announcements

New Wright Releases 1995 Mississippi Writers Richard Wright Circle from Calendar Membership University Press Now Available of Mississippi

The Color Curtain, which rose out The 1995 Mississippi Writers calen­ For a one year member hip to the of Wright's participation at the 1955 dar has just been published by the Richard Wright Circle, send a $10 Bandung conference, appears for Mississippi Deparunentof Archives check or money order with your the fU"St time in paperback with a and History. The new calendar fea­ name, address, telephone number, foreword by Gunnar Myrdal and an tures such revered authors as Rich­ and area of interest in Wright studies afterword by Amritjit Singh. ard Wright, William Faulkner, Eu­ to: dora Wei ty, and Tennessee Williams, Savage Holiday, Wright's dazzling plus younger acclaimed writers in­ Richard Wright Circle mid-fifties novel of murder and mis­ cluding Richard Ford, Barry Hannah, Northeastern University adventure, is reprinted for the first Beth Henley, and others. $12.95 Deparunenl of English time since its initial publication in each. To order contact 480 NightingaJe Hall 1954 with an introduction by Gerald Old Capitol Shop Boston, MA 02115 Early. P.O. Box 571 Jackson, MS 39205-0571 Inquiries: Both books will be published by the (610) 359-6921 Phone (61 7) 373-4549 Banner Books division of the Uni­ Fax (617) 373-2509 versity Press of Mississippi in Janu­ All proceeds go towards the e-mail [email protected] ary,1995. Mississippi Deparunent of Archives and History

age 8 Ric ard Wright Newsletter