"""Oct. 10, 1957, Paris: Richard Wright at his desk shortly before the publication of his book """"White Man, Listen!"""" Wright, famous for his memoir """"Black Boy"""" and the novel """"Native Son,"""" among others, is often ranked among the most influential Black writers of the 20th century. In addition to the enormous impact he had on Black American literature, he mentored other writers, among them James Baldwin. """"I had identified myself with him long before we met,"""" Baldwin said after his death. """"In a sense by no means metaphysical, his example had helped me to survive. He was Black, he was young, he had come out of Mississippi and the Chicago slums, and he was a writer. He proved it could be done — proved it to me, and gave me an arm against all the others who assured me it could not be done."""""""
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