How many books has Richard Wright written?

Richard Wright has written 176 books across 8 series. Their published works span from 1938 to 2025.

What is the first book in each Richard Wright series?

Here are the first books in Richard Wright's series: Akashic Noir: San Francisco Noir; Anthologies: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers; Non-Fiction: Black Boy; Perennial Library: You Can't Go Home Again(By: Thomas Wolfe); Poetry Collections: Haiku.

What order should I read Richard Wright's books?

We recommend reading Richard Wright's series in publication order. Each series can be read independently.

Is Richard Wright still writing new books?

Yes, Richard Wright has 1 ongoing series: Akashic Noir.

Richard Wright Reading Order

8 series · 176 books · Born 1908

Mystery & Thriller Non-Fiction

Richard Wright was an influential American writer whose powerful novels, short stories, and memoirs examined the experiences of African Americans facing systemic racism and violence in twentieth-century America. His most celebrated works, including the novel Native Son and the memoir Black Boy, established him as a major voice in American literature through their unflinching exploration of racial injustice and social inequality. Wright's prolific output spanning fiction, poetry, and non-fiction continues to resonate with readers seeking authentic accounts of the African American experience during a transformative period in the nation's history.

Akashic Noir Series

Ongoing

121 books (2002–2025)

Start with San Francisco Noir, the first of 121 books in the Akashic Noir series.

Start this series with San Francisco Noir

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	San Francisco Noir 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Bronx Noir 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Seattle Noir 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Brooklyn Noir 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Hasidic Noir 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	Brooklyn Noir 2 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Chicago Noir 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Dublin Noir 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Baltimore Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	D.C. Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	London Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Manhattan Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	Miami Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	Twin Cities Noir 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Detroit Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Havana Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	Los Angeles Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	New Orleans Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Wall Street Noir 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	Brooklyn Noir 3: Nothing But the Truth 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	D.C. Noir 2 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	Istanbul Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	Las Vegas Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	Manhattan Noir 2 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
25	Paris Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
26	Queens Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
27	Toronto Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
28	Trinidad Noir 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
29	Boston Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
30	Delhi Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
31	Phoenix Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
32	Portland Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
33	Rome Noir 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
34	San Francisco Noir 2 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
35	Copenhagen Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
36	Haiti Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
37	Indian Country Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
38	Lone Star Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
39	Los Angeles Noir 2 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
40	Mexico City Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
41	Moscow Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
42	Orange County Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
43	Philadelphia Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
44	Richmond Noir 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
45	Barcelona Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
46	Cape Cod Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
47	New Jersey Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
48	Pittsburgh Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
49	San Diego Noir 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
50	Boston Noir 2 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
51	Kansas City Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
52	Kingston Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
53	Long Island Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
54	Mumbai Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
55	St. Petersburg Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
56	Staten Island Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
57	Venice Noir 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
58	Buffalo Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
59	Dallas Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
60	Haiti Noir 2 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
61	Manila Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
62	USA Noir 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
63	Belfast Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
64	Helsinki Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
65	Prison Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
66	Rio Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
67	Singapore Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
68	Tehran Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
69	Tel Aviv Noir 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
70	Beirut Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
71	Chicago Noir: The Classics 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
72	Marseille Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
73	Memphis Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
74	Providence Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
75	Zagreb Noir 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
76	Brussels Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
77	Mississippi Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
78	New Orleans Noir: The Classics 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
79	Prague Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
80	San Juan Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
81	St. Louis Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
82	Stockholm Noir 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
83	Atlanta Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
84	Buenos Aires Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
85	Montana Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
86	Montreal Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
87	New Haven Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
88	Oakland Noir 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
89	Trinidad Noir: The Classics 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
90	Baghdad Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
91	Berlin Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
92	Hong Kong Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
93	Lagos Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
94	Marrakech Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
95	Santa Cruz Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
96	Sydney Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
97	São Paulo Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
98	Vancouver Noir 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
99	Amsterdam Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
100	Houston Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
101	Milwaukee Noir 2019Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
102	Accra Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
103	Addis Ababa Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
104	Alabama Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
105	Belgrade Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
106	Berkeley Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
107	Columbus Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
108	Miami Noir: The Classics 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
109	Nairobi Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
110	Santa Fe Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
111	Tampa Bay Noir 2020Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
112	Palm Springs Noir 2021Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
113	Denver Noir 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
114	Paris Noir: The Suburbs 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
115	South Central Noir 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
116	Cleveland Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
117	East Jerusalem Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
118	West Jerusalem Noir 2023Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
119	Honolulu Noir 2024Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
120	Hamburg Noir 2025Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
121	Sacramento Noir 2025Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Anthologies Series

Complete

10 books (1967–2017)

Start with The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, the first of 10 books in the Anthologies series.

Start this series with The Best Short Stories by Black Writers

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	The Best Short Stories by Black Writers 1967Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	I Am the Darker Brother 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Growing Up in the South 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Go the Way Your Blood Beats 1996Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume 2 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Best American Short Stories of the Century 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Unnatural Selection of Darwinian Nightmares 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	The Civil Rights Reader 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	10 Common Core Essentials 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	Ask: Building Consent Culture 2017Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Non-Fiction Series

Complete

3 books (1945–1974)

Start with Black Boy and read in order.

Start this series with Black Boy

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	Black Boy 1945Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Color Curtain 1956Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Black Power 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Perennial Library Series

Complete

28 books (1940–1994)

Start with You Can't Go Home Again(By: Thomas Wolfe), the first of 28 books in the Perennial Library series.

Start this series with You Can't Go Home Again(By: Thomas Wolfe)

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	You Can't Go Home Again(By: Thomas Wolfe) 1940Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Religions of Man / The World's Religions(By: Huston Smith) 1958Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Sailcloth Shroud(By: Charles Williams) 1960Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Dead Calm(By: Charles Williams) 1963Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Great Short Works Of Jack London(By: Jack London) 1965Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Ashes Of Loda(By: Andrew Garve) 1965Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Wrong Venus / Don't Just Stand There(By: Charles Williams) 1966Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	R. D. Laing & Anti-psychiatry(By: Robert Boyers) 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Ecological Citizen(By: Dirck Van Sickle) 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	What Is Zen?(By: D.T. Suzuki) 1972Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Abortion, Baseball & Weed(By: Roger LeRoy Miller,Douglass C. North) 1973Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	Great Presidential Decisions(By: Richard B. Morris) 1973Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	They Came Here First(By: D'Arcy McNickle) 1975Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	The Gestalt Therapy Primer(By: Daniel Rosenblatt) 1976Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Your Life Is A Mess: And What To Do About It(By: Daniel Rosenblatt) 1976Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Sylvia Plath(By: Barry Kyle) 1977Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	Dick Gregory's Bible Tales(By: Dick Gregory) 1978Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	Fire In The Barley(By: Frank Parrish) 1979Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Beyond A Reasonable Doubt(By: C.W. Grafton) 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	East And West(By: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) 1980Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Roast Eggs(By: Douglas Clark) 1981Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	The Other Side Of Silence(By: Ted Allbeury) 1981Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	An Unsuitable Attachment(By: Barbara Pym) 1982Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	Sweet Sister Seduced(By: S.B. Hough) 1983Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
25	The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships(By: Harriet Lerner) 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
26	Chronology Of Boston Red Sox Records(By: John A. Mercurio) 1989Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
27	Medical Lifeboat(By: Howard H. Hiatt) 1989Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
28	Scarne's Encyclopedia Of Card Games(By: John Scarne) 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Poetry Collections Series

Complete

2 books (1998–2018)

Start with Haiku and read in order.

Start this series with Haiku

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	Haiku 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Seeing into Tomorrow 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Short Stories/Novellas Series

Complete

2 books (1993–2018)

Start with Rite of Passage and read in order.

Start this series with Rite of Passage

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	Rite of Passage 1993Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Injustice 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Short Story Collections Series

Complete

3 books (1938–1958)

Start with Uncle Tom's Children and read in order.

Start this series with Uncle Tom's Children

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	Uncle Tom's Children 1938Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	12 Million Black Voices 1941Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Eight Men 1958Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Standalone Novels Series

Likely Complete

7 books (1940–2021)

Start with Native Son, the first of 7 books in the Standalone Novels series.

Start this series with Native Son

Buy Book 1 🇺🇸🎧 Listen free on Audible

#	Title
1	Native Son 1940Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	The Outsider 1953Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Savage Holiday 1954Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	The Long Dream 1958Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	Lawd Today! 1963Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	A Father's Law 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Man Who Lived Underground 2021Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Richard Wright written?: Richard Wright has written 176 books across 8 series. Their published works span from 1938 to 2025.
What is the first book in each Richard Wright series?: Here are the first books in Richard Wright's series: Akashic Noir: San Francisco Noir; Anthologies: The Best Short Stories by Black Writers; Non-Fiction: Black Boy; Perennial Library: You Can't Go Home Again(By: Thomas Wolfe); Poetry Collections: Haiku.
What order should I read Richard Wright's books?: We recommend reading Richard Wright's series in publication order. Each series can be read independently.
Is Richard Wright still writing new books?: Yes, Richard Wright has 1 ongoing series: Akashic Noir.

Richard Wright Reading Order

Akashic Noir Series

Anthologies Series

Non-Fiction Series

Perennial Library Series

Poetry Collections Series

Short Stories/Novellas Series

Short Story Collections Series

Standalone Novels Series

Frequently Asked Questions

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