Theater critic Jacquinn Sinclair delves into Patti Hartigan's eye-opening account of the playwright's life and work.
Omar Robinson, Johnnie Mack, Regine Vital, Dereks Thomas, Anthony T Goss and Maya Carter in August Wilson’s"Seven Guitars" at Actors’ Shakespeare Project. The late playwright August Wilson, clad in turtlenecks and hats, spent his life listening, observing and absorbing.
But sometimes enigmatic public figures like Wilson, can appear to have always been successful. In journalist Patti Hartigan’s new book, Wilson’s journey to fame, from fledgling poet to theatrical giant is carefully detailed. What’s most compelling, though, is how Hartigan sheds light on Wilson’s ability to write from his soul, often crafting characters whose lives mimicked ancestors or community members he never met — pulling from what Hartigan writes is “blood memory.
The book starts with Wilson’s humble beginnings at home with his mom Daisy Wilson and siblings, the racism he endured in school and the absence of his father, a German baker with a penchant for alcohol. But it also flashes back to Wilson’s ancestors, particularly his great-grandmother whose homestead was on a mountain in Spear, North Carolina.
Though wounded, Wilson never gave up on his writerly dreams despite detours. An autodidact, Wilson was an avid reader who eagerly frequented the library and consumed the works of the Western Canon, along with everything he could get his hands on. In 1965 at 20 he decided to become a poet and changed his name to August Wilson. His poetry, often centered on nature, didn’t jibe with the work of his peers seeking systemic change and equality.
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