Life of Richard Wright

The Life of Richard Wright

Richard Wright, one of America’s greatest black writers is among those who achieved literary fame and fortune during the twentieth century. He was born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi on September 4, 1908. His family’s extreme poverty forced them to move to Memphis, Tennessee when he was six years old. His mother, Ella Wilson was a well-educated schoolteacher; and his father, Nathaniel was an illiterate sharecropper. Wright was subjected to an unpleasant childhood of pain, suffering and of a scarce formal education; however, his desire to become a writer encouraged him to achieve greatness (Williams 4-5).
Wright was deprived of a normal childhood. At the age of six, his father walked out on the family to live with another woman. For this reason, the family was left extremely impoverished and the mother was forced to find work as a cook. In early 1916, Wright’s mother became ill. She placed him and his younger brother Leo...