(born Sept. 4, 1908, near Natchez, Miss., U.S.—died Nov. 28, 1960, Paris, France) U.S. novelist and short-story writer. Wright, whose grandparents had been slaves, grew up in poverty.
After migrating north he joined the Federal Writers' Project in Chicago, then moved to New York City in 1937. He was a member of the Communist Party in the years 1932–44. He first came to wide attention with a volume of novellas, Uncle Tom's Children (1938). His novel Native Son (1940), though considered shocking and violent, became a best-seller. The fictionalized autobiography Black Boy (1945) vividly describes his often harsh childhood and youth. After World War II he settled in Paris. He is remembered as one of the first African American writers to protest white treatment of blacks.
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