Contact: Maridith Geuder
An internationally acclaimed African-American novelist from Mississippi is the focus of the current issue of The Mississippi Quarterly.
Richard Wright, a sharecropper's son born near Natchez in 1908, is considered to be one of the 20th century's most influential writers, said Robert L. Phillips, editor of the literary journal published at Mississippi State University.
"He greatly influenced such other literary giants as James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison," the English professor said.
Wright, who also lived in Greenwood and Jackson, was the 1925 valedictorian of Smith-Robertson High School in Jackson. Two years later, he moved to Chicago, where he worked for the post office and wrote in his spare time.
In 1940, he published "Native Son," a book about black life in Mississippi that brought him international fame. Another best seller, "Black Boy," followed in 1945. Wright moved to France in 1947 and died there in 1960.
"His work, especially 'Native Son,' represents a major accomplishment," Phillips said.
International scholars, including those from the Ukraine, France, and Japan, contributed essays to the Wright issue, which is jointly edited by Jack B. Moore of the Institute on Black Life at the University of South Florida and Michael Fabre of the Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in France.
The journal, which has published past special issues about Mississippi novelist William Faulkner and playwright Tennessee Williams, plans a fall issue on author Eudora Welty and a future issue on the Black Art South movement, Phillips said.
For more information about The Mississippi Quarterly, write in care of P. O. Box 5272, Mississippi State, MS 39762.