A short literary guide to one of this country s greatest African American dramatists, "August Wilson s Twentieth-Century Cycle Plays: A Reader s Companion" will serve a wide range of students, teachers, theater professionals, and theater audiences. Beginning with an account of August Wilson s life, from his impoverished childhood in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to achieving national acclaim, the book introduces the ten-play cycleone for each decade of the twentieth centuryas a whole, explaining Wilson s goals as a playwright: to depict African American life, primarily in...