Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground

Patrick Chura (University of Akron)

A-A A+

Ed. by Patrick Chura, University of Akron
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2021 - 2021

Places

United States (Country of Origin; Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Richard Wright finished the manuscript of The Man Who Lived Underground in December 1941. The first copies of the novel reached bookstores in April 2021. The story behind the eighty-year publication delay is revealing.

In 1940, with Native Son still on the bestseller lists, Wright’s editors at Harper & Brothers saw a chance to leverage his status as America’s leading Black writer. They had a hunch that an uplifting tale with Wright’s name on it would be a hit and pressured the celebrity author for a new book under the upbeat title Black Hope. Wright agreed to the idea and began a novel about female domestic workers.

But the Black Hope project languished. In J…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

2165 words

Citation: Chura, Patrick. "The Man Who Lived Underground". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 June 2021 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40533, accessed 03 April 2025.]