The University Library System (ULS) at the University of Pittsburgh has acquired the archive of the late playwright and Pittsburgh native son August Wilson, best known for his unprecedented American Century Cycle —ten plays that convey the Black experience in each decade of the 20th century. All ten of the plays have had Broadway productions and two earned Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Wilson, a master storyteller, honed his craft by walking the streets of his Hill District neighborhood as a young man, observing, and immersing himself in Black street life, listening to old-timers talk about their daily lives. It inspired what would become his plays’ vibrant characters and lyrical language.

The Broadway and film casts of Wilson’s American Century Cycle plays have included Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Charles S. Dutton, Viola Davis, Laurence Fishburne, Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones, Delroy Lindo, Phylicia Rashad, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Alfre Woodard, and Denzel Washington. “The Piano Lesson,” “Fences,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” have all been produced into films.

August Wilson with actors, Brian Stokes Mitchell (left) and Charles S. Dutton (right)

August Wilson with actress, Theresa Merritt at Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas. 1994

About

The ULS has acquired the August Wilson Archive through the help of Wilson’s widow, Constanza Romero, executor of the playwright’s estate.

“This acquisition is about more than bringing August Wilson back home to Pittsburgh,” said Pitt Chancellor Patrick Gallagher. “This archive deftly puts the experiences of Black Americans beneath an intimate magnifying glass and unpacks themes of injustice and inequity that are just as relevant today as when Wilson’s first play debuted. The University of Pittsburgh is proud to do our part in keeping August Wilson’s brilliance—for those in Pittsburgh and far beyond—alive, and we are deeply grateful to Constanza for entrusting us with this task.”

“The origin of August’s connection with the city of Pittsburgh began with his grandmother Zonia Wilson, who in 1932 came north from Spear, North Carolina,” said Romero. “She and her family settled down in the Hill District, which in 1945, the year August was born, was a booming, diverse community.”

Romero says as the young writer experienced and observed racial injustice, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement, he grew to be an activist, a poet and an artist producing political theater to bring consciousness to his community.

“He left Pittsburgh in 1978, but he took The Hill, the three rivers, the streets, the steel mills, the fish sandwich shops, and the cadence of the language he heard in cigar stores and barbershops with him,” she said. “This and more became the cultural richness that the playwright would pour into his ten-play magnum opus, The American Century Cycle, a breathtaking study of the African American struggle for cultural and economic preservation through the twentieth century. The result of this hundred-year quest was and still is a literary and theatrical triumph, as August with each play calls upon the ‘memory of the blood,’ the careful examination of history which illuminates the discovery of the self, therefore the path to the future.”

Kornelia Tancheva, Hillman University Librarian and director of the ULS, calls the August Wilson Archive “the most significant archival collection the University of Pittsburgh has acquired to date.” She says it had been her dream to add the collection to Pitt’s holdings ever since she came to Pittsburgh three years ago.

Tancheva added: “It is an immense asset for researchers at Pitt, as well as nationally and internationally. It presents unprecedented opportunities for engagement for our students and the local community, including the local schools. The August Wilson Archive supports our mission of preserving and making accessible the cultural heritage of the region, the country, and the world, and specifically our focus on underrepresented voices and the cultural production of African American artists.”

Indeed, Wilson called himself a Black nationalist and his American Century Cycle plays reflect his own personal call for social and racial justice. This falls in line with Pitt’s mission to reshape the University to be more diverse, inclusive, and just, all while expanding its reach and impact in promoting social justice.