August Wilson's Biography

August Wilson was born on April 27, 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he died on October 2, 2005. He was a great playwright and won many awards for his creative work. August Wilson's father was also called Frederick August Kittle. His father was a German immigrant. Wilson, went to school at Pittsburgh Central Catholic High School. He dropped out of school at age 15 and turned to self-education at the Carnegie Library. Wilson's mother also had married another man named David Bedford. They were a white working class family. Wilson's father died in 1965. At the same year Wilson decided to write poetry. Wilson's early work failed to gain much attention. But his third play, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (1982), won him a wide attention as a dramatist and interpreter for the African American experience. His plays won many awards. In the 20th century, August Wilson explored the lives, dreams, triumphs and tragedies of African-American history and culture. August Wilson gained inspiration from African American artists. A famous play that he once wrote is "Fences" in 1957-58 and 1963. "Fences comprimises the 1950's. It relates to a black family who tries to make connections in the slag slippery hills of a middle African Urban industrial city. He tries to tell the story of four generations of black African Americans.

August Wilson's cycle of plays:

"Gem of the Ocean," 1904
"Joe Turner's Come and Gone," 1911
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," 1927
"The Piano Lesson," 1936
"Seven Guitars," 1948
"Fences," 1957-58 and 1963
"Two Trains Running," 1969
"Jitney," 1977
"King Hedley, II," 1985
"Radio Golf," 1997

Sources:
http://www.sparknotes.com/drama/fences/context.html
http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC00085/nov1ess.htm
http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-fences/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Wilson
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1014-21.htm