August Wilson

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August Wilson , actually Frederick August Kittel, Jr. (born April 27, 1945 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania , † October 2, 2005 in Seattle , Washington ), was an American playwright and playwright and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner . In 2005 he received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for his life's work .

Life

August Wilson emerged from the union of an Afro-American mother, Daisy Wilson, and a German-Bohemian father, Friedrich August Kittel. As the eldest son, he was named after his father, Fredrick August Kittel. After his father's death (1965) he took his mother's surname. He was married three times and moved his center of life first to Minneapolis, later to Seattle. In 1991 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1995 to the American Academy of Arts and Letters , in 2004 he received a Heinz Award .

Suffering from liver cancer, Wilson died at the age of 60 in a Seattle hospital. He is buried in Pittsburgh, where there has also been an August Wilson Center for African American Culture since 2006.

plant

At first he worked as a gardener, dishwasher and salesman. His breakthrough as a playwright came in 1987 with the Broadway premiere of his play about the blues singer Ma Rainey . This play is part of a series of ten plays, each dedicated to a decade of the 20th century. Except for “Ma Rainey”, which Chicago has as the setting, all plays are set in his native Pittsburgh. Wilson is considered the most important African American playwright. His literary role models include Amiri Baraka , James Baldwin and Jorge Luis Borges . August Wilson received the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for his drama Fences ( English for "Fences") and in 1990 for The Piano Lesson ( English for " The Piano Lesson "). A total of eight of Wilson's works were staged on Broadway . His pieces have not yet been translated into German.

Denzel Washington's film adaptation of Fences earned Wilson a posthumous Oscar nomination for screenwriting in 2017 .

Plays

  • 1977: Jitney
  • 1978: Joe Turner's Come and Gone
  • 1984: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
  • 1986: Fences (Pulitzer Prize)
  • 1987: The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer Prize)
  • 1988: Joe Turner's Come and Gone
  • 1990: Two Trains Running
  • 1996: Seven Guitars
  • 1999: King Hedley II
  • 2005: Radio Golf

literature

  • Thomas Leuchtenmüller: The Power of the Past - Introduction to the life and work of August Wilson . Wuerzburg 1997.
  • Mary E. Snodgrass: August Wilson , McFarland & Company 2004, ISBN 0-7864-1903-2
  • Jackson R. Bryer, Mary E. Hartig (Eds.): Conversations with August Wilson . Mississippi University Press 2006.
  • Laurence A. Glasco, Christopher Rawson: August Wilson, Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays . Pittsburgh 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members: August Wilson. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed May 4, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Wilson, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kittel, Frederick August (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American playwright and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania, United States
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 2005
Place of death Seattle , Washington, United States