Richard Wright Top 10 Facts 📝

Wright’s best-seller ‘Native Son’ became an instant success – ushering the author into the top echelon of wealthy black writers of his time. But this is far from being the only interesting fact about the author. In this article, we will explain the top 10 interesting facts about the acclaimed writer Richard Wright. 

Wright’s Autobiography Black Boy was Initially Called American Hunger

When Richard Wright began writing his impressive autobiographical book ‘Black Boy,’ he initially called it ‘American Hunger,’ but later changed the title to what it is currently called because he wanted to be more realistic and portray the color stereotype and how devastating and limiting the word was for him and other blacks at the time. 

He spent part of his childhood in the foster homes  

Richard Wright’s childhood wasn’t the easiest even for a strong character like him. His father abandoning the family at the time he was most needed was the breaking point for young Wright. This forced his mother into extra pressure to deliver bread for him and his little brother Leon. She managed to do that for a while – working two jobs as a cook and housemaid. But when she fell ill and couldn’t keep up, she was forced to send Wright and his brother to a foster home where she felt they had a better chance for a normal life than she could offer them. 

He got into trouble a few times because of his interest in education and books

Wright’s foster homestay didn’t last very long because after a few months, his mother, now recovering, came and retrieved him back, subsequently moving with him to stay at the home of Wright’s maternal grandmother. In the beginning, it felt like a good move for Wright, but not for long as he immediately began having issues with Granny, who didn’t want him to read books for fear he would be corrupted and who also forced Christianity and church-going on Wright. Young Wright preferred to work on the sabbath day, a move his highly devoted granny themed unacceptable and abominable. Wright could never get along with Granny on these fronts, so he began exploring the option of leaving her roof and the prospect of renting a place. 

His father left them and married into another family 

In his autobiographical work, ‘Black Boy,’ Wright gives readers a hint of the kind of man his father, Nathan, was. You get the impression that Nathan was a disciplinarian, had temper issues, and wasn’t one to express his feelings very much. Wright feared him and didn’t have a very close bond with him. In reality, Wright’s father left him when he was six years old and moved in with another woman. The author would never get to see him again until his thirty-fifth birthday.

He was a fearless supporter of black liberation 

All through his life, Wright was an espousal and activist for black freedom. This vision became a passion and later his single goal for life, and this explains why his poems, novels, short stories, essays, and public lectures were all about or were subsidiaries of the subject. 

He had the opportunity to travel and live in the various black cities and shared their struggles

Wright’s family’s struggles and instability ensured that he began moving around quite early in life, and quite a lot. Having been born in Roxie, Mississippi, the author moved around and had a short stay in Jackson and Natchez at different points in the same city. Beyond Mississippi, he also had spells staying in several black cities including Memphis, Tennessee, South Side, Chicago, and later, Harlem, New York City. All of his travels and trips exposed him to the reality of life and the struggles of his fellow black Americans and thus became an inspiration for his many writings in the later years. 

Wright was at one point the richest black writer of his generation 

Richard Wright is, by history, recognized as the richest and most influential black writer of his generation.  The popularity of his novel, ‘Native Son,’ was directly responsible for his fame and fortune – selling around 2,000 copies a day and around 250,000 copies in three weeks at five dollars each. This brought him, aside from the money, some huge popularity, and was acclaimed as the first bestselling black writer. Along with his fortunes from his other works, Wright was able to afford to travel further across America and later Europe – spreading the word about unity among world black and white races. 

Uncle Tom’s Children’s commercial success saved him from being stranded in Harlem 

In 1938, Wright published the work that most definitely announced his talents to the world in ‘Uncle Tom’s Children.’ This was the first book that gave him substantial commercial success and would go a long way to help a struggling Wright afford his personal and professional needs. The success of this book was tremendous in helping him write and put out his bestseller ‘Native Son’ two years later. 

He was a devout member of a communist movement 

Wright’s activism for black liberation was always a top priority for him, so to achieve this goal, he sought to join the communist movement whose ideals were progressively in the direction of his own political and racial passions. He was a member of this movement when he came to Chicago in the early 1930s and when he moved to New York City, he joined its New York branch and became their leader in the category of writing and publishing. 

Despite being raised in the faith, Wright considered himself an atheist 

Richard Wright was born into a very devoted Christian home, and he and his brother Leon were raised in the faith and by such a standard. As a little boy, Wright attended church services with his mother and grandmother, not because he wanted to, but because he had been forced and wanted to make his mother happy. Wright was a practical man who needed more logic and physical reason to believe in God, and when he left home and began staying alone, he identified more with secularism and atheism than with Christianity. 

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