Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
If you’ve seen the movie Uncle Tom’s Cabin, then you’ve seen the boat that took Richard to Memphis with his family. Even though the Kate Adams was destroyed during production, they reconstructed it in order to finish the filming. (Source.)
Wright was buried at the Cimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris with a copy of Black Boy on his chest. At least he’s not alone now, since he’s surrounded by a bunch of famous (dead) neighbors. (Source.)
Incredibly, the bench that Wright wrote on and the apartment that he rented in Brooklyn are still around. If you sit on the bench, maybe some of his skills will rub off on you. (Source.)
We all know that Richard is constantly getting in trouble, but we didn’t know it was this kind of trouble. Both the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. spied on Wright for fifteen years. (Here’s a tip, Shmoopers: stay off the Communist watch lists.) (Source.)
As if we didn’t feel inadequate enough about Wright’s literary accomplishments, it turns out he wrote and acted in a movie about his own novel. (Source.)