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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Entertainment
David Smith in Washington

‘One of the great American stories’: the incredible life of playwright August Wilson

August Wilson in 2005
‘It’s the quintessential American story in a way that the majority culture doesn’t think of it’ … August Wilson in 2005. Photograph: Michelle McLoughlin/AP

The host was Bill Moyers, former White House press secretary under Lyndon Johnson. The guest was August Wilson, one of the great playwrights of the 20th century and unofficial laureate of African American history and culture. It did not go well.

“Don’t you grow weary of thinking Black, writing Black, being asked questions about Blacks?” Moyers asked on his PBS show A World of Ideas in 1988.

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