Includes bibliographies and index

Born in Mississippi in 1908, the grandson of former slaves, Richard Wright spent his teenage years chopping wood, carrying coal, scrubbing floors, and enduring a thousand indignities. Later in his work, he raised profoundly disturbing questions about the "nightmarish jungle" of race relations in contemporary America, offering profoundly pessimistic answers in return. Wright had a large readership--even, for a time, a place on the bestseller lists and the top income-tax bracket. But, because he had joined the Communist Party as a young man, he was accused of anti-Americanism and even suspected of spying for Moscow and his books were banned in several states and cities. Eventually, a prophet without honor, he left his native country and lived out the rest of his years in France, where he is buried