Product Description

After the Second World War Gertrude Stein asked a friend's support in securing a visa for Richard Wright to visit Paris.

"I've got to help him, she said. You see, we are both members of a minority group."

The brief, little-noted friendship of Stein and Wright began in 1945 with a letter. Over the next fifteen months, the two kept up a lively correspondence which culminated in Wright's visit to Paris in May 1946 and ended with Stein's death a few months later.

Gertrude Stein and Richard Wright began their careers as marginals within marginalized groups, and their desire to live peacefully in unorthodox marriages led them away from America and into permanent exile in France. Still the obvious differences between them-in class, ethnic and racial origins, and in artistic expression-beg the question: What was there to talk about? This question opens a window onto each writer's meditations on the influence of racial, ethnic, national origins on the formation of identity in a modern and post-modern world.

The intuitive and intellectual affinities between Stein and Wright are illuminated in several works of non-fiction. Stein's Paris France and Wright's Pagan Spain are meditations on expatriation and creativity. Their so-called homecoming narratives-Stein's Everybody's Autobiography and Wright's Black Power --examine concepts of racial and national identity in a post-modernist world. Respectively in Lectures in America and White Man, Listen! Stein and Wright outline the ways in which the poetics and politics of modernism are inextricably bound.

At the close of the twentieth century the meditations of Stein and Wright on the protean quality of individual identity and its artistic, social, and political expression explore the most prescient and pressing issues of our time and beyond.

M. Lynn Weiss is an assistant professor of English and African-American literature at Washington University. ... Read more

Product Description
In Black Boy, Richard Wright triumphs over an ugly, racist world by fashioning an inspiring, powerful, beautiful, and fictionalized autobiography. To help students understand and appreciate his story in the cultural, political, racial, social, and literary contexts of its time, this casebook provides a rich source of primary historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary. The selection of unique documents is designed to place in sharp relief the pervasive issue of racism in American society. Documents include excerpts from other autobiographies and a novel, legal documents, speeches, an interview, an anthropological study, magazine and newspaper articles, and contemporary editorials. Most of the documents are available in no other printed form. ... Read more

Product Description
From Richard Wright to Toni Morrison: Ethics in Modern and Postmodern American Narrative studies the relationship of literature to contemporary ethical problems. Focusing on southern and African American writers, this book employs theoretical approaches from ethnicity studies, regional criticism, and postcolonial theory. It intends to insert a reading of ethics into the critical study of fictional and nonfictional narratives by Richard Wright, James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, Ernest J. Gaines, Walker Percy, Richard Ford, Toni Morrison, and other modern and postmodern American writers. ... Read more

Product Description
Richard Wright is widely recognized as one of the most important African-American writers and as a significant 20th-century author. With the publication of Native Son in 1940, Wright established his enduring reputation. This volume is a survey of critical responses to Richard Wright from Native Son to the present day. Selections range from seminal works by Blyden Jackson, James Baldwin, and Keneth Kinnamon to more recent works by a new generation of Wright scholars. ... Read more

Product Description
Traces the life and achievements of the twentieth-century African American novelist, who earned a reputation for his outspoken criticism of racial discrimination. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

RIchard Wrights Story
My mother made me read this book in the summer and I thought it would be boring but it wasn't. I think that's because Richard Wright was such an interesting person and had such a hard life. I couldn't put the book down becasue I wanted to know what happened to him. He had a lot of great things happen and a lot of sad things. I think the writer did a really good job making me care about what happened to Richard Wright and the book was not too hard to read either. All in all if you have to write a book report about RIchard Wright I would say to get this book. It has all the facts and it's fun to read.

It's Really All Wright
I thought reading a book about Richard Wright would be boring, but it wasn't. This biography had all the facts about his tough life but it was written in a way that made it interesting. I really wanted to keep going to see what would happen to Richard Wright. He had a really hard beginning of his life because in his childhood he was always poor and hungry. But in the end, he became famous and taught our country about what it really feels like to be Black and discriminated against. I really recommend this book especially if you're studying Richard Wright or any of his books or the Civil Rights Movement. Good pictures, too.

RIchard Wright Rocks
This books tells the story of Richard Wright's life. It is easy enough to read so that you get all the facts, but it is also really exciting so that the reader won't want to put it down. I would recommend this book to anyone studying African American history because Richard Wright overcame his sad beginning and the adversity of prejudice to become a great writer. The author tells it like it is but with heart. There are also plenty of interesting pictures in the book. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Publisher: sold by D. Eaton; Publication date: 1824; Subjects: Missionaries; Unitarian Universalist churches; Unitarian churches; Biography ... Read more