Richard Wright

An item at American Writers Museum

Richard Wright's anguished Native Son (1940), the story of a man's downward spiral into murder, electrified readers. It became the first best-selling novel by an African-American writer. His follow-up, the autobiographical Black Boy (1945), was also a best seller. Together, the books exposed the entrenched racism that, as Wright wrote, made all Americans "powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces."

Wright's success made him a public figure, the leading African-American intellectual of his day-even after 1947, when he moved to Europe permanently, As an expatriate, Wright broadened his focus to explore the global consequence of colonialism, most notably with his works Black Power (1954) and The Color Curtain (1956).

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum