Quicklets: Learn More. Read Less.
Lorraine Hansberry was born May 19, 1930 and grew up, like the characters in A Raisin in the Sun, in Chicago's South Side. She attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, but left in 1950 before graduating. She then moved to New York City where she began working as a writer. A Raisin in the Sun is her most well known work. It was first produced on Broadway in 1959, and its success made Hansberry the first African American playwright to win the Best Play of the Year Award from the New York Drama Critics. Hansberry's promising career was cut short, however, when she died January 12, 1965 of pancreatic cancer. A Raisin in the Sun has become a landmark in American literature and drama. James Baldwin gave high praise to the work, writing that never before in the entire history of the American theater had so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stag.
First produced in 1959 when Hansberry was only 29 years old, it won the Best Play Award of the New York Drama Critics. It has since been adapted for film, television, and musical theater, and has been performed thousands of times around the United States, as well as on stages around the world in over 30 languages. Along with the popular and critical acclaim of the original stage production, these various adaptations of A Raisin in the Sun have been nominated for multiple Tony Awards, Cannes Festival Awards, and several Golden Globe awards.
