In the 1960s and early 1970s, Charles Stevenson Wright (1932–2008) published three passionately idiosyncratic, big-hearted, tragicomedic short novels about mid-20th Century African American existence. He was an innovator who broke with traditional fictional modes and helped negotiate a space for Ishmael Reed, Clarence Major, and other African American avantgardists. Ismael Reed called his second book, The Wig, “one of the most underrated novels by a black person in this century.” James Baldwin said: "Charles Wright is a terrific writer, and I hope he goes the distance and lives to be 110."