by Patti Hartigan
Overall: August Wilson, one of the most important playwrights of the 20th century, died in 2005, but August Wilson: A Life is the first major biography to examine his life and work. Through interviews conducted with Wilson, some of his inner circle, and extensive research, this book builds a portrait of a man determined to give a voice to the people in the neighborhood that shaped his youth. Wilson never stopped advocating for greater inclusion of people of color in all parts of American theater, and his 10-play cycle about Black life in the 20th century has become a part of theater canon, taught in schools and performed regularly across the country.
Likes: The book does a masterful job of setting the stage for Wilson’s birth, with extensive genealogical research and information on Wilson’s complex family situation, and detailing his early life. It also provides a wonderful grounding sense of some of the spaces where Wilson lived and worked, especially the O’Neill playwrights conference and some of the houses and apartments he occupied. How Wilson worked – an arduous progression – receives detailed attention; anyone who writes will be interested to see how this particular genius figured out his own process. The book does a good job of balancing the personal and the professional, and also of balancing admiration of Wilson’s professional achievement with an examination of his challenges as a human being.
Dislikes: Unfortunately, the book did not receive authorization from the August Wilson Estate, which means that Wilson’s words often must be paraphrased in the text. Given the importance of words to the man and his work, this is a challenge that the book sometimes struggles to overcome. The book also asserts that Wilson used words to create a kind of “spell,” particularly in his extramarital relationships, the reader doesn’t ever see what this looked like. None of the people who knew about these extramarital relationships would speak on the record about them, which leaves the reader with little sense of what motivated Wilson to pursue them or how they may have contributed to his life and art.
FYI: racism, death of a parent, complex parent-child relationships, marital infidelity.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.
Liz Helfrich 