No Place Like Home

Pittsburgh, and Western Pennsylvania, have not been the setting of many books or films until the last 20 years or so. Our area is not as popular as, say, New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. There might even be more made up-places that get used as story settings, rather than authors placing their stories in Pittsburgh (though that's just pure conjecture).

According to a 2010 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, the first book to use Western PA as a locale was Modern Chivalry by Hugh Henry Brackenridge, published in 1792. Unfortunately, it seems that this didn't start any kind of trend of writers wanting to explore the intricacies of the area. By the late 20th century, however, it started to slowly change.

One of the most successful writers to use Pittsburgh as a setting was Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson (April 27, 1945). Born Frederick August Kittel in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh, he made a name for himself with his Pittsburgh Cycle of plays. Of the ten plays in the cycle (one for each decade of the 20th century), all but one are set in Pittsburgh. The first play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, took place in Chicago in 1927, but was based on musicians that Wilson knew while growing up in Pittsburgh.

Wilson was one of six children born to Daisy (Wilson) and Frederick August Kittel. His father was a German immigrant who did not live with or support the family; he was a baker by trade, but often out of work. Wilson's mother was the biggest influence on his life. She worked as a cleaning woman to support the family and provided a loving, but strict, home for Wilson and his siblings. He lived much of his life in the then-racially diverse Hill District neighborhood. This is where he got much of the inspiration for his stories.

Wilson dropped out of school after ninth grade, due to the racist treatment he felt he was receiving. Instead, he spent his time at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's main branch, where he immersed himself in the writings of African-American authors. After a stint in the Army in the early 60s, Wilson returned to Pittsburgh. He bought a used typewriter, moved out of his mother's house and started writing.

He started out writing poetry but eventually moved on to plays. His involvement in the Black Power movement, and his neighbors and friends in Pittsburgh, greatly influenced his writing. When he moved to Minnesota in 1977, and was no longer surrounded by a large black community, he turned to those people and places he knew in his youth.

While Wilson did write other plays, his main focus after 1984 was on his Pittsburgh Cycle plays. While none of the ten plays opened in New York (most opened at the Yale Repertory Theatre), they all eventually were produced there. He earned two Pulitzer Prizes, one for Fences (1987) and the other for The Piano Lesson (1990). He earned numerous New York Drama Critics Circle Awards and won the Tony for Best Play in 1987 for Fences. These plays focus on the African American experience throughout the 20th century. While many of the issues raised are familial in nature, the stories tend to be about issues of black identity, of those that embrace their African past, and those that have turned away from it.

While Wilson never lived in Pittsburgh again (he died in Seattle in 2005), the city and its people were always a part of him.


To read any of Wilson's plays:
Pittsburgh Cycle Plays

To watch a television production:
Television broadcast of The Piano Lesson (DVD)

Additional information:
Interviews with August Wilson (DVDs)

August Wilson: Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays by Laurence A. Glasco and Christopher Rawson

Also, be sure to take time to visit the August Wilson Center for African American Culture located in downtown Pittsburgh.

And here are a few select titles from some other Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania authors who use our area for the setting of their works:

Tawni O'Dell -- For a dark, but, at times, humorous, look at life in rural Pennsylvania, start with Back Roads. Her other works are also set in the same area.

Kathleen George -- For mysteries, start the Richard Christies series with Taken. Also, be sure to take a look at Pittsburgh Noir, a collection of short stories edited by George.

Jennifer Haigh -- Set in fictional Bakerton, PA, Baker Towers follows the lives of one coal mining family in Western Pennsylvania. Recently published is News From Heaven, a series of short stories about Bakerton.

Michael Chabon --  This award-winning novelist's first books, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, are set in Pittsburgh.


-- Post by Tracy