August Wilson's American Century - University of Pittsburgh Press

Playwright August Wilson is best known for his American Century Cycle, a sequence of ten plays—including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Fences and The Piano Lesson—that chronicle the lives of Black Americans in each decade of the twentieth century. But behind the celebrated plays stands a complex man shaped by his hometown’s vibrant Black culture. In August Wilson’s American Century: Life as Art, Laurence A. Glasco, one of the foremost historians of Black life in Pittsburgh, draws on Wilson’s early poetry, archival material, and original interviews with family members, neighbors, and friends to show how the city and its residents shaped the playwright and his work. Wilson’s overlapping identities as an outsider, warrior, race man, and poet helped him persevere in the face of setbacks, weave real-life observations with his poetry to craft memorable dialogue and compelling characters, and portray the realities of race in America in ways that have resonated with theatergoers and readers ever since. Glasco uncovers the story of how the people and places of Pittsburgh remained with Wilson after he left his hometown, shining through in a body of work that brought the struggles and triumphs of the Black experience to a wide audience and changed American theater for the better, shining through in a body of work that brought the struggles and triumphs of the Black experience to a wide audience and changed American theater for the better.

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A well-written biography that will persuade Wilson’s admirers to revisit his plays and introduce his work to a new generation of fans.

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Laurence A. Glasco has written a painstakingly researched book about playwright August Wilson, highlighting the city of Pittsburgh’s significance in Wilson’s plays and, more importantly, in his life. August Wilson’s American Century: Life as Art is among the most significant contributions to Wilson studies to date. Glasco guides readers on a detailed journey through Wilson’s life—from beginning to end—revealing a complete person whose life extended beyond his role as a playwright.

Khalid Y. Long, Howard University and president, August Wilson Society

Laurence A. Glasco crafts a vivid portrait of August Wilson’s early world. Grounded in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, August Wilson’s American Century follows the playwright’s roots, relationships, and self-formation with clarity and depth. Centering place as catalyst, Glasco reveals how Wilson’s artistry emerged through memory, migration, ancestral currents, and everyday experience.

Omiyẹmi (Artisia) Green, The College of William & Mary

August Wilson belongs among Shakespeare, Goethe, and Ibsen as one of the great playwrights of all time. Laurence A. Glasco has uncovered the life and labor behind the art. In August Wilson’s American Century, we witness the writer as a Pittsburgh boy exploring the library and playing baseball, a young poet exploring his Black identity in the 1960s, and a playwright drinking coffee and smoking in Seattle coffee shops as, against all odds, he writes another award-winning Broadway hit. Glasco has expanded the scholarship on Wilson to include missing pieces from Pittsburgh, his youth, and his place among Black intellectuals. A lively must-read for anybody interested in Wilson, Pittsburgh, or the American stage.

John W. Miller, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Last Manager

August Wilson’s American Century

Life as Art

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416 Pages, 6 x 9 in.

February, 2026

isbn : 9780822948544

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