Michel Fabre: "The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright," 1993

Biography of Richard Wright

First Edition: 1973

Second Edition: University of Illinois Press, 1993, with new preface and bibliographic essay since 1973.

Paper: 978-0-252-06264-3

$30.00

Pub Date: 1993

Pages: 680 pages

Description by University of Illinois Press

Widely acclaimed for its comprehensive and sensitive picture of one of America's most renowned writers, The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright received the Anisfield-Wolf Award on Race Relations when it was first published. This first paperback edition contains a new preface and bibliographic essay, updating changes in the author's approach to his subject and discussing works published on Wright since 1973.

"The most important book to date on one of America's most important writers." -- John Wideman, New York Times Book Review

"Not only the best Wright biography, but the only good one. It has too long been unavailable." -- Keneth Kinnamon, author of The Emergence of Richard Wright: A Study in Literature and Society

"A superb and moving biography of Richard Wright which has filled me with elation and pride and has moved me to tears. He has added another dimension to the Richard Wright I knew." -- Chester Himes

"A profound and thorough interpretation of his work. It is at once affective and human, very moving and complete. Michel Fabre understands both the man and the writer. I admire the book and feel it is done once and for all, a sensitive and intelligent portrait of Richard Wright." -- Anais Nin

Visit the Google Book Search page for this title

Subjects:

Black Studies / Biography & Personal Papers / Literature, American

References to word "homosexual": page 478 (Wright's fictional character Mechanical), page 602 (Wright's homosexual friends, James Baldwin and George Davis), page 616 (the character Mechanical).

Reference to word "homosexuality": page 13

"notes reveal that Wright had a terror of homosexuality, associating it with the term hermaphrodite; he has a vague memory of wandering through the streets of Memphis, drunk or maybe drugged, imagining that he had become a hermaphrodite, a kind of devil without a tail, in order to revenge himself on the strict religion of his family."

References