"Written when she was just twenty-eight, Lorraine Hansberry's landmark A Raisin in the Sun is listed by the National Theatre as one of the hundred most significant works of the twentieth century. Hansberry was the first Black woman to have a play performed on Broadway, and the first Black and youngest American playwright to win a New York Critics' Circle Award. Charles J. Shields's authoritative biography of one of the twentieth century's most admired...

The prose and dramatic writings of Lorraine Hansberry provide autobiographical information about the author's life, thoughts, feelings, and career.

As a young girl, playwright Lorraine Hansberry walked everywhere with a notebook, eager to capture the sights, sounds, and stories of the people around her. First Lorraine watched her parents triumph in the Supreme Court case of Hansberry v. Lee. Then she discovered the magic of theater. Next, she unlocked the power of her voice, crafting A Raisin in the Sun. Her play went on to influence generations of artists and the world was never the same.

Examines the life and works of twentieth-century African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote "A Raisin in the Sun"; includes a chronology and a selected bibliography.

Contains a performance of Lorraine Hansberry's play A raisin in the sun; a performance of the play To be young, gifted and Black, which is a dramatized portrait of Hansberry arranged from her writings; and seven of Hansberry's interviews and speeches ranging in topic "from integration to backlash to the greatness and limitations of African-American leadership"--Container