The Central Authors Engraving Project – Richard Wright

Richard Wright (1908-1960) was a novelist, poet, journalist, and champion of social and racial justice. He is best known for his works chronicling the struggles of African Americans in the Southern United States. He published his first story at age 15 in the Southern Register, a local Black newspaper in Jackson, Mississippi. At his junior high school in Jackson, Wright graduated as the class valedictorian. In 1927, Wright moved to Chicago, where he would spend the next decade. During this time, Wright wrote poems for New Masses and other left-leaning publications, completed his first novel, founded the South Side Writers’ Group, and worked with the National Negro Congress. In 1937, Wright moved to New York and became the editor of the Daily Worker in Harlem, where he wrote more than 200 articles in his first year there. In 1946, he visited Paris, France, and in 1948, he decided to move there permanently. In Paris, Wright became a local celebrity. He traveled throughout Europe giving lectures and appeared on television and radio programs. Wright continued working on various literary projects in Paris until his death, in 1960. He left behind a wife and two daughters, and a body of work that included fiction and nonfiction books, numerous articles and essays, and thousands of poems. #IndyPLAdults #CentralAuthorsEngravingProject