William Connor Wright Jr. (October 22, 1930 – June 4, 2016) was an American author, editor and playwright. He is best known for his non fiction writing covering a wildly divergent list of subjects: from the April in Paris Ball at the

Waldorf-Astoria The Waldorf Astoria New York is a luxury hotel and condominium residence in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The structure, at 301 Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, is a 47-story Art Deco landmark designed by architects Schultz ...

to genetics and behavior to true crime and grand opera. The great Harvard naturalist and author,

E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...

, said of Wright's ''Born that Way, Genes, Behavior, Personality'': "It takes an independent writer and free spirit to tell the story straight, and thank God Wright has done it." In addition to ''

Lillian Hellman Lillian Florence Hellman (June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984) was an American playwright, prose writer, memoirist and screenwriter known for her success on Broadway, as well as her communist sympathies and political activism. She was blacklisted aft ...

, the Image and the Woman'', Wright's books include ''The Von Bulow Affair'', and two books with and about

Luciano Pavarotti Luciano Pavarotti (, , ; 12 October 19356 September 2007) was an Italian operatic tenor who during the late part of his career crossed over into popular music, eventually becoming one of the most acclaimed tenors of all time. He made numerou ...

: ''Pavarotti, My Own Story'' and ''Pavarotti, My World''.

Biography

Wright was born in Philadelphia, the son of William Connor Wright Sr. and Josephine Hartshorne Wright. He graduated from the

Germantown Friends School Germantown Friends School (GFS) is a coeducational independent PreK–12 school in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States under the supervision of Germantown Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Fri ...

and earned his B.A. at

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. In the U.S. Army, he completed training in Chinese at the Language School in Monterey, California and served as an Army translator and interpreter in Japan, Okinawa and on the . He lived for many years in New York City; and in later years, Key West, Florida. His longtime companion was the writer Barry Raine.

Career

After his Army service, Wright was an editor at ''

Holiday A holiday is a day set aside by custom or by law on which normal activities, especially business or work including school, are suspended or reduced. Generally, holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate or commemorate an event or tra ...

'' magazine when it was located in Philadelphia and published the likes of

John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer and the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature winner "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social ...

, V.S. Pritchett and

Lawrence Durrell Lawrence George Durrell (; 27 February 1912 – 7 November 1990) was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer. He was the eldest brother of naturalist and writer Gerald Durrell. Born in India to British colonial pare ...

. When ''Holiday'' became a casualty of the Curtis Publishing Company's disintegration, Wright accepted a bizarre offer from composer

Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti (, ; July 7, 1911 – February 1, 2007) was an Italian composer, librettist, director, and playwright who is primarily known for his output of 25 operas. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept h ...

to become manager of Menotti's Spoleto Festival, then held only in Italy. Wright's job was to oversee the production of some ten events put on by the festival's U.S. side. Each of his events was successful, but the overall festival was a financial disaster. Unnerved, Wright resigned. After struggling for five years writing magazine articles, Wright accepted an offer to become the editor of ''

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

'' magazine, which he did from 1969 to 1971. Although the magazine was well received by both Chicagoans and advertisers, his tenure was cut short when the magazine was closed down for making jibes at the elder Mayor Richard Daley. Although offered editorial positions at three other publications, Wright turned to writing full-time and continued to do so until a few years before his death, mostly authoring non-fiction books.

Works

Books

*''Ball'', 1972, Saturday Review Press *''Heiress, the Rich Life of Marjorie Merriweather Post'', 1978, New Republic Books *''Rich Relations, a novel'', 1980, G.P. Putnam's Sons *''Pavarotti, My Own Story'', 1981, Doubleday *''The Von Bulow Affair'', 1983, Delacorte Press *''Lillian Hellman, the Image, the Woman'', 1986, Simon and Schuster *''All the Pain Money Can Buy: The Life of Christina Onassis'', 1991, Simon and Schuster *''Sins of the Father'', with Eileen Franklin. 1991, Crown Publishers *''Pavarotti, My World'', 1995, Crown Publishers *''Born that Way, Genes, Behavior, Personality'', 1998, Alfred A. Knopf *'' Harvard’s Secret Court: The Savage 1920 Purge of Campus Homosexuals'', 2005, St. Martin's Press

Television

*Songs of Naples, a PBS special with Luciano Pavarotti

Plays

*''The Julia Wars'', Lillian Hellman's legal battle with Mary McCarthy *''Dreams and Decay in the Winter Palace'', the descent of Catherine the Great from idealistic liberalism to decadent conservatism

Notable reviews

*''The Showgirl and Her (Many) Princes'' a review of Gold Digger by Constance Rosenblum, May 17, 2000 New York Times. *''The Love-Hate Themes in Albee’s Life and Work'' a review of EDWARD ALBEE biography by Mel Gussow, August 23, 1999, New York Times. *''Why Lillian Hellman Remains Fascinating'' stage view article in The New York Times November 3, 1996.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, William 1930 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American biographers American magazine editors United States Army personnel Writers from Philadelphia Yale College alumni Germantown Friends School alumni Historians of LGBT topics LGBT people from Pennsylvania American gay writers