Fredrick August Wilson Research Paper

Fredrick August Kittle, was born on April 27, 1945, in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Wilson, who dropped his father’s name and changed it to August Wilson in his twenties, was the son of Daisy Wilson, an African American cleaning women, and Frederick Kittle, a German immigrant (PBS). Wilson was raised by his mother with his siblings, and bounced from school to school before finally dropping out of high school in his early teens. August Wilson was a talented writer and when he was kicked out of his last school for supposed “plagiarism”, his teacher stating that a black boy could never write that well, he would spend all of his time at the Carnegie Library educating himself (Basil, 4). As an avid reader from a young age, Wilson would soon find a new love, and appreciation for the written word. During this time, …show more content…
In total Wilson and his plays would have also won two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, seven New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, a Tony Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and the Heinz Award in Humanities Medal. Along with those awards, August Wilson also received 24 honorary doctorates and was inducted into the black Writers Hall of Fame. August Wilson’s work was significant to not only the black community but also Pittsburgh (Basil D,8). Not only did Wilson’s plays documented how life was for black families in Pittsburgh, but they also brought the African American race to center stage after being behind the curtains for so long. Looking back now from a historic point of view, Wilson was able to accurately depict what life was like in Pittsburgh over the course of his plays. August Wilson told realistic stories of the struggles of African Americans in the city of Pittsburgh, he took from his own experience and what he saw around him, and wrote for a group of people whose voices were not being heard at the