Richard Wright, Black Boy

Patrick Chura (University of Akron)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Race

Dates

First circulation or publication 1945

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Autobiography (literary)
Historical representation

Resources

Richard Wright’s Black Boy, published by Harper & Brothers in 1945 to critical acclaim and controversy, held top spot on the national bestseller list for six weeks and eventually went through over half a million copies in its first year. Famously denounced by Mississippi senator and white supremacist Theodore Bilbo as a “dirty… filthy… obscene piece of writing” (qtd.in Rowley 319), the book has since taken its rightful place as a classic of American nonfiction, a work of mythic power and deep insight that speaks to “the hunger for life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human” (Black Boy 384).

Wright’s autobiography, originally titled American Hunger, is divided into two sections. Part One, “Southern Night”, treats the author’s life in the South until 1927, the...

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3023 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "Black Boy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 May 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6332, accessed 09 June 2026.]