Richard Wright — Great American Writer
It seems fitting that on this day honoring Martin Luther King, I would, while browsing at Barnes and Noble, chance upon a recently issued edition of a heretofore unpublished manuscript of one of America’s greatest writers and read in the blurb about this wordsmith that he stands among the great black writers.
To be sure, Richard Wright was a black writer, but why did the publishers of A Father’s Law seek to limit his importance? Wright ranks among the great American authors who was able to write about his experience as a black man growing up in the South and later moving to Chicago such that he wrote not just about that experience but about the human experience.
Were the publishers (to paraphrase Dr. King) seeking to judge him by the color of his skin and not the universality of his themes?
His novel Native Son ranks along with Melville’s Moby Dick, Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, Cather’s My Ántonia and Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter as one of the greatest American novels. His Memoir Black Boy is perhaps the most powerful written by an American.
Do people call Truman Capote a great American writer or a great gay writer?
Heck, we can even dispense with the adjective describing Wright’s nationality. He was simply put a great writer, the power of whose works endures long after his death.
About a decade ago, when I was reading Wright’s work, I rushed off to the Borders near me (then in Northern Virginia) to buy another book, but I couldn’t find any of his writings in the “Fiction & Literature” section. It struck me as strange that a bookstore with that large an inventory would not have a single work by this great author.
When I asked, I learned that they shelved his works in the African-American section. By that logic, a bookstore out here would shelve John Steinbeck in the Calfornia section.
Just as Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great American, Richard Wright was a great writer. Each achieved his greatness by drawing on his experiences as a black man in a segregated society, then found a means to transcend racial difference to address universal theme.
We will truly have learned from Dr. King’s positive vision if we come to see Richard Wright as a great American writer and place his works where they belong, alongside Cather, Hawthorne, Melville, Steinbeck, other great American writers.
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That’ what liberals do. Everybody has to be classified and categorized rather than just be referred to as human.
I read in the WSJ, about a year ago, about a black horror author who was ticked off at this. His books weren’t being found in the horror section but rather in the African-American section.
We’re supposed to be the racist bigots, but it’s the liberals who always see skin color first and classify folks accordingly. Need proof? Barack Obama.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 21, 2008 @ 11:58 pm - January 21, 2008
Taking note of somebody’s skin color does not necessarily indicate bigotry, just as noticing somebody’s gender does not automatically mean sexism.
Comment by Christopher — January 22, 2008 @ 1:25 am - January 22, 2008
#3
Maybe so, but when you’re fixated on skin color, as the liberals usually are, there’s something wrong.
How many times are we going to be reminded that Obama is a black candidate? How many times were we informed, last year, that coaches Smith and Dungy were black? If you’re my friend/associate and black, would it be worthwhile always introducing you as my black friend/associate?
Catch my drift? Why the need to lable and categorize? How do you “unite” people if you get off on separating them?
Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 22, 2008 @ 11:27 am - January 22, 2008
Perhaps liberals are “fixated” on race, because race still matters in this country. Barack Obama has finished first or second in recent Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses. For this reason, a lot of attention is being paid to him. Barack Obama also happens to be black. He belongs to an ethnic minority group. For this additional reason, he is the focus of even more attention.
I don’t think that categorizing people runs counter to the goal of unity. In my opinion, there is strength in recognizing and respecting people’s differences.
Comment by Christopher — January 22, 2008 @ 2:25 pm - January 22, 2008
While I am Caucasian, I had the experience of being a racial minority when I worked in Trinidad. Yes, there IS something about being in a racial minority. Yes, there are black bigots just as there are white bigots. Yes, there are good people of any color. I would classify and classify, until I got sick and tired of doing so. I am tired of classifying.
As regards Obama, I took several online quizzes to compare my political views with the other candidates. Obama was the candidate farthest apart from my views.
Must be my rural Illinois grandfather’s antipathy towards Chicago machine politicians showing through.
Comment by PostLiberal — January 22, 2008 @ 10:24 pm - January 22, 2008
Say more about Wright, Dan, Bitte. Wright’s struggle, as a man and as a writer, was also to place himself, geographically as well as politically. (For a great “African-American” writer, he certainly never fully rooted himself anywhere, and certainly not in Africa.) What needs to be remembered about Wright is that he was, in a very real sense, a European writer – he lived in Europe for the last 15 years or so of his life, where he wrote on European subjects (Pagan Spain) and approprirated existentialist themes (The Outsider). He was never at home politically, having first adhered to, then breaking quite publicly and notably. (Most liberals ignore Wright’s contribution to The God That Failed; conservatives have a duty to study it.) If you grant James Baldwin’s take on him, then Wright was never at home in his black manhood (in the essay, “Alas, Poor Richard!” he describes Wright’s prose as that of a man being castrated). Lastly, like many other leading black intellectuals – like Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James, Amiri Baraka (initially, when he was LeRoi Jones), and James Baldwin (generally) – his spouse was white.
Comment by Jeremayakovka — January 23, 2008 @ 3:37 am - January 23, 2008
Correction: “… breaking quite publicly and notably with The American Communist Party”
Comment by Jeremayakovka — January 23, 2008 @ 3:38 am - January 23, 2008
Jeremy, I’d love to say more about Wright, but it’s been a while since I read his stuff so don’t feel qualified to offer more than a general appreciation of his achievement. I recall how much it moved me – and inspired me. Indeed, I found myself writing my first screen play, The Lady of Mississippi, while reading his books.
If I had more time, I would love to dip back into those books and offer more detailed commentary.
Comment by GayPatriotWest — January 25, 2008 @ 2:41 am - January 25, 2008