Home > Black Boy Summary & Study Guide > Richard Wright Biography
Black Boy | Author Biography
Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908, at Rucker's Plantation in Roxie, Mississippi. His parents were Ellen Wilson, a school teacher, and Nathan Wright, a sharecropper. His brother Leon was born in 1910 and one year later they moved to Ellen's parents' house in Natchez. It is that house in which Wright's novel Black Boy has its opening drama.
The family moved to Memphis in 1913 and soon thereafter Richard's father deserted them. For the next few years, Ellen did her best to feed and clothe the boys, but she began a devastating cycle of illness. At one point...
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