Richard Wright was born near Natchez, Mississippi, in 1908. As a child he lived in Memphis, Tennessee, then in an orphanage, and with various relatives. He left home at fifteen and returned to Memphis for two years to work, and in 1934...

The remarkable memoir of Wright's childhood, growing up as a young black boy in the American south of the 1920s and 1930s. An instant classic on its original publication in 1945. 'A compelling indictment of the Deep South between the...

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he...