Fellow Black writers condemned Wright’s Paris exile as damaging his literary freedom.

Evidence

Wright wrote generously to Ellison, praising his work and inviting him to Paris — to which Ellison commented rudely, ‘I am getting a little sick of American Negroes running over for a few weeks and coming back insisting that it’s paradise.’ He thought Wright had harmed himself by moving abroad: he had spoiled the freedom of his writing by seeking freedom in real life. Wright got this sort of remark a lot: his editor, Edward Aswell, thought he had won peace as an individual but lost literary momentum. Even James Baldwin wrote ‘Richard was able, at last, to live in Paris exactly as he would have lived, had he been a white man, here, in America. This may seem desirable, but I wonder if it is.’ — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 882

Categorization

• QUESTION: Baldwin’s remark hints at a subtler critique than Ellison’s; worth exploring what Baldwin actually meant.
• XREF: connects to: Black writers were condemned for moving abroad where white writers were not. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 883; Harold Cruse blamed Wright’s Marxist framework for obscuring his Black nationalism — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1338

Broader Connections

• Black writers were condemned for moving abroad where white writers were not. #expands (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 883
• Harold Cruse blamed Wright’s Marxist framework for obscuring his Black nationalism #complicates (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1338