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Richard Wright

Books

10 of the Most Precocious Authors in Literary History

By Michelle Rafferty on

The 150th anniversary of Edith Wharton’s birth has brought all sorts of fun biographical information to our attention. For example, we recently learned about her favorite childhood game “Making Up,” a strange combination of chanting, pacing, and inventing stories. This vile behavior of course concerned Edith’s blue-blood parents, but as we all know, it was only a precursor to the genius that was to come. Which got us thinking: what were other famously precocious authors doing as kids? (Hint: Stephen King was the coolest.) Click through to see what we found and be sure to add those we missed! … Read More

Art

Richard Wright’s Golden Fresco Goes Bye Bye

By Caroline Stanley on

ArtsBeat reports that a gold leaf fresco by 2009 Turner Prizer-winner Richard Wright has been sanded and painted over by workers at the Tate Britain — and it wasn’t an accident. Wright, who told The Guardian that he believes that there’s “too much stuff in the world,” intends for his elaborate wall… Read More

Art

Richard Wright (No, Not That One) Wins 2009 Turner Prize

By Kelsey Keith on

The Turner Prize committee has announced this year’s winner for the top art prize in Great Britain, and it doesn’t involve text-based art, bodily fluids, minimalism, or performance. Instead, artist Richard Wright uses classical fresco techniques learned from Old Masters tradition to create temporary, site-specific installations like the gold-leafed piece currently residing in an empty room in the Tate Britain. The Rorschach-like mural is a far cry from the sensationalist circus of Turners past, and a dark horse winner in this year’s contest.… Read More

Books

A Modest Proposal for Dealing with Unemployed Writers…

By Caroline Stanley on

In this week’s New Republic, Mark I. Pinsky suggests that Barack Obama bail out laid-off journalists with a modern version of the Federal Writers Project — the program launched by FDR to provide jobs to more than 6,000 out-of-work creative types in the late ’30s. The emphasis was on documentation; writers worked on everything from state travel guides to slave narratives. Pinksy points out that many of the people involved the first time around became some of the biggest names in the American cannon — John Steinbeck, John Cheever, Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, and Richard Wright — and used FWP funding to research the works that made them famous. … Read More