A Wilson in an Hour

In 1960, August Wilson ended his formal education when he dropped out of high school after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing his paper on Napoleon. She implied it was too good for a black student to have written. Wilson retreated to Pittsburgh¿s Carnegie Library where, reading Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, he was inspired. Years later, that inspiration moved him to write The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays that capture the experience of being black in...
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In 1960, August Wilson ended his formal education when he dropped out of high school after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing his paper on Napoleon. She implied it was too good for a black student to have written. Wilson retreated to Pittsburgh¿s Carnegie Library where, reading Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison, he was inspired. Years later, that inspiration moved him to write The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays that capture the experience of being black in twentieth-century America. Setting the playwright in context to his personal life, social, historical and political events, other writers of influence, and more, you will quickly gain a deep understanding of August Wilson and the plays he wrote. Read A. Wilson in an Hour and experience his plays like never before. Know the playwright, love the play! The book features: - A. Wilson in an Hour, the primary portion of the book - A. Wilson in a Minute, a snapshot chronology - A complete listing of August Wilson's work - A list of August Wilson's contemporaries in all fields - Excerpts from August Wilson's major plays - An extensive bibliography grouped according to type of reader - An index of the main essay. Playwrights in an Hour is a series devoted to the most produced and studied playwrights in the English language, from the Greek masters to contemporary writers, and written by leading authorities in the field. Each short book places the playwright and his or her work in historical, social, and literary context. Joan Herrington, contemporary theater scholar, author, editor, teacher, and director. "In 1982, I met August Wilson at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Centre and began a friendship that lasted twenty-three years. Each time I worked with him on a new play, I fell in love again with his extraordinary relationship to language, and his unending compassion for the characters he created. I am blessed for having known him, for sitting by his side while he wrote, for walking down the streets of Manhattan with him on our way to a coffee shop."