The Development of a Unique Artistic American Voice: August Wilson's American Century by Laurence A. Glasco

 August Wilson's American Century: Life as Art by Laurence A. Glasco

August Wilson's American Century book cover

Author and scholar Laurence A. Glasco

Big thanks to The University of Pittsburgh Press and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of Laurence A. Glasco’s comprehensive artistic biography of playwright August Wilson titled August Wilson’s American Century: Life as Art. This was an incredible book, especially if you’ve read or watched any of Wilson’s plays. I’ve taught Fences and The Piano Lesson in schools, and students always enjoy the characters, dialogues and conflicts in these plays. I started teaching these plays right around the time of Wilson’s untimely death at age 60. However, there was not a lot of biographical information about Wilson beyond what he shared in interviews. Glasco’s book provides a detailed and well-researched biography of not just Wilson’s life, but also the various influences on his development as a poet and one of America’s most significant playwrights. I absolutely loved this book, and I wished that there was this kind of level of scholarship or detailed background into Wilson’s influences when I was teaching his plays. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to read about his life growing up in Pittsburgh and to recognize some of the references in plays like Fences, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and The Piano Lesson to events, individuals, and places in his life and hometown.

In some ways, this book could also be titled Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, as we see how various factors influenced Wilson’s life as a poet and playwright. A majority of the book is spent on his early life, adolescence, and young adulthood, prior to his struggles and emerging fame as a playwright. Glasco identifies how Wilson’s experience growing up as the son of a single African American mother, whose father was white, distant, and married to another woman, emerged in some of his plays. Although Glasco doesn’t explicitly make these connections in his book, I couldn’t help but see how Troy’s relationship with both Cory and Lyons was mirrored in Wilson’s relationship with father and mother. Similarly, Wilson’s stepfather shared similar characteristics with Troy as an ex-felon who tried to create a positive life after his time in prison. Additionally, readers can also see how Wilson’s bi-racial identity impacted his writing and how being a Black playwright in the 1980s and 1990s in particular challenged Wilson’s writing. I found it particularly interesting to read about how the Black Arts Movement eventually made its way from New York and Newark through Amiri Baraka’s appearance in Pittsburgh and influenced Wilson and some of his colleagues. While at times Wilson appeared to be influenced by the Black Nationalism of the Black Arts Movement, it wasn’t a consistent influence on his writing as he also seemed to be influenced by Beat writers as well, which I also found fascinating since I never realized this influence from his plays. I also loved the fact that Glasco included some of Wilson’s poems and provided some biographical analysis of them to better understand their context in relation to Wilson’s life. I have never read any of Wilson’s poems, so this was definitely exciting to read. Furthermore, readers are able to see the growth and development of his writing, from the kind of obscure and abstract modernity to the realism, and how Wilson’s early experiments with poetry, in particular his performances of Dylan Thomas’ poetry in Welsh accent, mirrored his own kind of search for an identity. Readers also learn how this search for a voice and style in his writing and the focus of the Black Arts Movement in drama as a medium to reach a broader audience led him into drama. It’s this kind of questing and Wilson’s observational skills and keen ear that led him to move from the kind of agitprop, political theater that was influenced by writers like Baraka to the everyday language and conversations that are a part of award winning plays like Fences.

August Wilson’s America is more than a biography, and yet it’s also more than a critical study. It’s a careful analysis of the development of a unique, artistic voice in American literature. I loved learning more about Wilson’s life and especially learning more about the references he makes to his life in his plays. This was an incredible book, and it is recommended reading if you are a fan of Wilson’s work. Highly recommended, especially for literature and theater lovers.