To pursue his literary interests, Wright went as far as to forge notes so he could take out books on a white coworker's library card, as Black people were not allowed to use the public libraries in Memphis. After leaving school, Wright worked a series of odd jobs, and in his free time, he delved into American literature. When he was 16, a short story of his was published in a Southern African American newspaper, an encouraging sign for future prospects. Schooled in Jackson, Mississippi, Wright only managed to get a ninth-grade education, but he was a voracious reader and showed early on that he had a way with words. The grandson of slaves and the son of a sharecropper, Wright was largely raised by his mother, a caring woman who became a single parent after her husband left the family when Wright was five years old. Richard Nathaniel Wright was born on September 4, 1908, in Roxie, Mississippi. He is well-known for his 1940 bestseller Native Son and his 1945 autobiography, Black Boy. Later, he found employment with the Federal Writers' Project and received critical acclaim for Uncle Tom's Children, a collection of four stories. Richard Wright was an African American writer and poet who published his first short story at the age of 16.
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