August Wilson – Author Biography
Early Life
August Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel Jr. on April 27, 1945, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children of a German immigrant father and an African American mother. He grew up in the Hill District, Pittsburgh’s historically Black neighborhood. He dropped out of high school at fifteen after a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a paper — he had written it himself — and educated himself in the Carnegie Library, which later awarded him a high school diploma.
Career
Wilson began as a poet in the Black Arts Movement, co-founding the Black Horizon Theater in Pittsburgh. His breakthrough as a playwright came with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), the first of his ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle — one play for each decade of the 20th century, chronicling Black American life. Fences (1985), about garbage collector Troy Maxson and his family, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play. The Piano Lesson (1987) won a second Pulitzer. Other cycle plays include Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Two Trains Running, and Gem of the Ocean. He died of liver cancer on October 2, 2005, having completed the cycle’s final play, Radio Golf.
Major Works
The American Century Cycle (Pittsburgh Cycle): Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (1984), Fences (1985), Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1986), The Piano Lesson (1987), Two Trains Running (1990), Seven Guitars (1995), Jitney (1982/2000), King Hedley II (1999), Gem of the Ocean (2003), Radio Golf (2005).
Writing Style and Themes
Wilson wrote in rich, musical, blues-inflected dialogue — long speeches that feel like arias. His great subject was the Black American experience across the 20th century: migration, racism, family, work, and the weight of history. His characters are ordinary people carrying extraordinary dignity; his plays ask what America owes its Black citizens and what they owe each other. He insisted his plays be directed by Black directors, defending the integrity of Black storytelling.
Legacy
Wilson is widely considered the greatest American playwright of the late 20th century — two Pulitzers, a Tony, and a body of work compared to Shakespeare’s histories. Broadway’s Virginia Theatre was renamed the August Wilson Theatre in 2005. Film adaptations of Fences (2016) and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) brought his work to new audiences.
