Richard Wright’s Experience to His Successful Writing Career

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Richard Wright was a writer and author. His childhood was mostly him being hungry and poor. He struggled with becoming a writer. But even with the hardships, he still had a lot of accomplishments. Even though Richard Wright's childhood was rough, he became a great author. Richard Wright had a rough childhood. He was born near Natchez, Mississippi, on September 4th, 1908. He was the son of Ella Wilson who was a school teacher and Nathaniel Wright who was a sharecropper. He had a brother named, Leon Alan Wright.

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Richard was never connected with his father. He claimed that he was a stranger to him [Richard Wright]. His father wasn't emotionally there for them.When he was 6, his father left his family to move with another woman. Richard said that it didn't affect him too much emotionally but he was affected physically. The mom was stressed out since she had to take care of two kids by herself. The family started having financial issues.

Richard was hungry most of the time now, but it wasn't major. Unfortunately, his mother became ill and wasn't allowed to do any domestic job. Since his mother couldn't support the family anymore, Richard and his brother were sent to an orphanage. During the orphanage, he went to Howard's Institute but that didn't last long since the family moved to Jackson and then to Arkansas.

The family then moved back to Jackson to stay with his grandparents and his aunt. Richard never got a good education due to the fact that they kept on moving to find a better place to live.

Richard moved school to school and finally settled to Smith Robertson Junior High School graduating the 9th grade. He then went to Lanier High school but soon dropped out due to the fact that he had to start taking care of his family.He had some issues at home. His grandmother was very religious and Richard wasn't comfortable due to that. He rebelled against religion due to his grandmother. He took a lot of jobs to save up, to move. He soon got enough money to move to Memphis. He soon began to focus on writing more.Richard Wright's writing career started when he was 15. He wrote his first story called The Voodoo of Hell's Half-Arch. The story was published in a local black newspaper. His grandmother was very religious and started hating on the title because of the word Hell. In fact, his grandmother wouldn't let any books in, especially fiction because it is the devil's work. Due to this situation, Richard Wright couldn't read as much at home. Instead he would go to the library. But he couldn't take any books out since he was black. He had to borrow a library card from an Irish worker and forge notes just to take out books. He moved to Memphis and he started reading more contemporary American Literature.He then moved to Chicago to leave the south because of the Jim Crow Laws. In 1935, he started to write a bunch of short stories and a novel. He then decided to hit big and move to New York. When he was in New York, he worked as an editor of Daily Worker.During his free time, he worked on his writing. His short story collection, Uncle Tom's Children, got published in 1938! This is when his writing finally got launched and noticed.

After that, he started to publish so much more writing and started to get awards for them.Even though he had a lot of hardships, he still became very successful. He accomplished a lot in his literary career.In 1939, he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship award from his Uncle Tom's Children short story collection, which had a prize of $500. In 1949, he awarded the "Spingarn Medal" by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He wrote successful books such as Native Son and Black Boy. In fact, Native Son was put on the Times Magazine's list of 100 Best English Novels from 1923 to 2005. Black Boy also became a bestseller at one point and that book inspired James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. He won so many achievements during his career. Richard Wright was an amazing writer. Even with his tough childhood, he still became this talented writer. He inspires people and shows that if you give hard work and effort to something, you can achieve your dreams! In conclusion, Richard Wright was a talented writer who had a rough past but didn't let that affect him.