One of America’s greatest black writers, Richard Wright was among the first African American Writers to achieve literary fame and fortune, but his reputation has less to do with the color of his skin than with the superb quality of his work.To most important works were: Native Son, a novel, and his autobiography, Black Boy. Richard Wright was born on a plantation near Natchez, Mississippi, on September 4, 1908. His father, Nathaniel, was an illiterate sharecropper and his mother, Ella Wilson, was a well-educated school teacher. The family’s extreme poverty forced them to move to Memphis when Richard was six years old. Soon after, his father left the family for another woman and his mother was forced to work as a cook in order to support the family. Richard briefly stayed in an orphanage during this period as well. His mother became ill while living in Memphis, so the family moved to Jackson, Mississippi, and lived with Ella’s mother. He also prepared another collection of short stories, Eight Men, which was published after his death on November 28, 1960.