Looking for Richard Wright

Looking for Richard Wright, a new Beinecke Library podcast,  is now available; you can listen to and download this podcast free via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and through Yale’s iTunesU web site.

In Looking for Richard Wright, Caryl Phillips, Professor of English at Yale University and the author of eight novels, two anthologies, and three works of non-fiction, describes his process of writing the introduction to the Vintage Books, British edition of Richard Wright’s landmark text, Native Son.

This is the second podcast to mark the centenary celebration of Richard Wright’s writing and life. The first, Professor Jonathan Holloway’s Richard Wright, Native Son, and the Beinecke Library: Being Brought to My Senses, is also available via the Beinecke’s Blogs & Podcasts page and through Yale’s iTunesU web site.

The Richard Wright Papers are held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library; information about the Wright archive and related collections can be found online by searching the Library’s Finding Aid Database. Images from the archive are available through the Beinecke’s Digital Library.

Images from the Richard Wright Papers:  Richard Wright as Bigger Thomas in film version of Native Son; draft page of Native Son .

In Memoriam

Eartha Kitt (January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008), photographed by Carl Van Vechten on October 19, 1954.

Additional images of Eartha Kitt are available in the Beinecke’s Digital Collections. Photographs by Carl Van Vechten are used with permission of the Van Vechten Trust; the permission of the Trust is required to reprint or use Van Vechten photographs in any way. To contact the Trust email: Van Vechten Trust.