"August Wilson" (April 27, 1945—October 2, 2005) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright.Wilson's singular achievement and literary legacy is a cycle of ten plays- 'The Pittsburgh Cycle'.
Early life
Born "Frederick August Kittel" in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wilson was the fourth of six children. His father was a German immigrant baker, also named Frederick August Kittel, who seldom spent time with his family, and his mother was an African American cleaning woman, Daisy Wilson, from North Carolina. Wilson's parents stayed together until he was five. His mother raised their children in a two-room apartment. This economically-depressed neighborhood was inhabited predominantly by many black Americans, and Jewish and Italian immigrants.
Teen Years
Wilson's family moved from the Hill to a then predominantly white working class neighborhood, Hazelwood. There, they encountered racial hostility; bricks were thrown through a window at their new home.
Wilson was the only black student at Central Catholic High School in 1959; threats and abuse drove him away. He dropped out of Gladstone High School in the 9th grade in 1960 when a teacher accused him of plagiarizing a 20-page paper on Napoleon.Wilson then educated himself, which later awarded him a degree.
Wilson, who had learned to read at age four, began reading books by black writers at age 12.
Wilson knew that he wanted to be a writer, but his mother wanted him to become a lawyer. She forced him to leave the house.
Adult life
August Kittel changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father's death in 1965. That same year he discovered the blues as sung by Bessie Smith and bought a typewriter for $20.
Wilson was married three times.
Death
On August 26, 2005, he told his hometown newspaper, "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2005 and been given three to five months to live. He died on October 2, 2005 at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. He was buried in Greenwood Cemetery on October 8, 2005.
On October 16, 2005,the Virginia Theatre in New York's Broadway theatre district was renamed the August Wilson Theatre. This is the first Broadway theatre to bear the name of an African-American.
The vacated Republican Street between Warren Avenue N. and 2nd Avenue N. on the Seattle Center grounds has been renamed August Wilson Way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Wilson
For more about August Wilson, visit.....
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/archive/peoplearchive.php/August_Wilson/biography/
