In August Wilson’s American Century, the historian unpacks the complex relationship between the playwright and his native Pittsburgh.

What inspired this book?

In 2010, five years after Wilson’s death, Christopher Rawson, who taught in the English department at the University of Pittsburgh, came to my classroom and said, Why don’t the two of us collaborate on a book on August Wilson? We did a short book called August Wilson: Pittsburgh Places in His Life and Plays, but then Rawson got busy with other things, and I took over the project.

Do you think Wilson would have agreed with your portrayal of him as an outsider?

I think so. We have this negative image of an outsider as a loser, a no-good egg. But, really, being an outsider helped make him a good writer. This is true of other writers. If you’re an insider, you can’t step back and see the big picture. The heroes of Wilson’s plays were almost always outsiders, some from Pittsburgh, others from elsewhere. Either way, the main characters were always him.

In what ways was he an outsider?

He got harassed in public school because he was light-skinned. His mother sent him to Catholic school. That education helped open up things for him. But the people he really wanted to be accepted by were other Black people.

Where did Wilson do his writing?

He didn’t write holed up in an attic or apartment. He wrote out on the street, in restaurants and bars, watching and listening to people. Like an anthropologist, he absorbed his surroundings rather than reading books. One of his girlfriends told me his idea of a date would be to go to a restaurant and listen in on other people’s conversations.

You note that Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle plays don’t always accurately portray the city. What did he get wrong?

He refused to do historical research, which he said inhibited his imagination. For the plays set in decades that he lived in, this was okay. But the plays set in an earlier Pittsburgh, for example Gem of the Ocean, don’t fit the historic record. Gem’s lead character comes to Pittsburgh from Alabama in the very early 1900s. But Black people didn’t begin coming from Alabama to Pittsburgh in any numbers until WWI, to work in the mills. I once sent him a copy of my book on the history of early Black Pittsburgh, but he didn’t read it. I know because I’ve looked at the Wilson archives, and the book is there, still in its original wrapping.

How important is Wilson today for Pittsburgh?

It gives people a sense of pride that he’s been so recognized. We have sessions at the August Wilson House and programs that honor his work. You get a nice turnout of people who are excited to listen to Wilson’s plays. We even had a group from Italy come; they do his plays in Italian. August Wilson has made a huge difference for the city.