Richard Wright

Reflections on Richard Wright’s recently published novel, "The Man Who Lived Underground."

A newly restored novel tests an old dynamic between readers and the author of “Native Son.”

'The Man Who Lived Underground,' newly expanded from a story into a novel by the Library of America, may revise the seminal Black author's reputation.

His posthumously released novel, “The Man Who Lived Underground,” was written during a crisis of political faith.

Novelist Richard Wright yearned to break into film, but Hollywood's censorship of black stories left his aspirations unfulfilled.

How James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and others embraced a new Black humanism.

Sara Marcus’s recent book argues that from the Reconstruction to the AIDS era, a distinct aesthetic formed around defeat in the realm of politics.

Archival records of Black southerners' military desertion tribunals can be read as a distinct form of political action.

Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.

How historians have understood Africa and the Black diaspora in global conversations about race and identity.

On the private and public lives of the author of “The Fire Next Time” and “Giovanni’s Room.”

The postwar moment of a distinctive new American novel—Nabokov’s "Lolita"— is also the moment in which William Faulkner finally gained recognition.

The novelist's aestheticizing impulse contrasts with the relentless seriousness of his observations and critiques of American society.

Gordon Parks’s most famous photograph, "American Gothic," was of a cleaning woman in Washington, D.C. She has a story to tell.

In the midst of the Depression, Conroy helped encourage a new generation of working-class writers.

John A. Williams’s unsung novel.

In the 1940s, a series of books tried to use the conventions of detective fiction to expose the degree of prejudice in postwar America.

How Istanbul changed his career—and his life.

Two differing explorations of post-WWII culture, politics, and ideals.

Two recent books examine the idea of the Midwest as a haven for white supremacy and patriarchy.