|
|
|
|
|
||
|
Articles
|
||
|
Articles |
The August Wilson Century CycleDateline: 11th April, 2008There might be an interesting debate to be waged about what makes a play script into literature. For the most part, despite their high cost, these thin volumes seem ephemeral without a full-scale staging of their contents. However, it would be a brave man or woman who would deny that Shakespeare is worth publishing and reading. Strangely, a writer with whom August Wilson seemingly has nothing in common has perhaps written a work that parallels his more closely than any other. Anthony Powell wrote twelve volumes of short novels that he called A Dance to the Music of Time, which together present a magnificent portrayal of the English upper classes through much of the 20th century. Wilson, writing a little later, did the same for a community otherwise under-represented in writing, the dispossessed Blacks of the United States and, more particularly, Pittsburgh. Nick Hern has now imported this beautifully produced boxed set of Wilson's work in hardback, which will grace any bookshelf although at a high list price, each volume costing £25 and the complete set £200. In terms of the pleasure that it will give, The August Wilson Century Cycle might well be worth it, but one fears that many people will be deprived of the opportunity of enjoying this mighty life's work due to that cover price. The set commences with an introduction to the life and work of Wilson by the New Yorker's John Lahr, who does a good job of establishing the significance of a man who should never have achieved what he did. Had he not been so exceptional, Wilson had every right to expect a life like that of his characters, struggling to find paid work, writing in corners and quite probably considered by passers-by to be bordering on madness. In addition, each volume has an individual introduction by someone who has been close to the writer or his work and thus is able to whet the appetite for the pleasures to come.
Philip Fisher
|
|
|
|