WRITER

Lorraine Hansberry

1930 - 1965

Photo of Lorraine Hansberry

Icon of person Lorraine Hansberry

Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway. Her best-known work, the play A Raisin in the Sun, highlights the lives of black Americans in Chicago living under racial segregation. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Lorraine Hansberry has received more than 2,202,437 page views. Her biography is available in 27 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 26 in 2019). Lorraine Hansberry is the 6,203rd most popular writer (down from 5,686th in 2019), the 10,705th most popular biography from United States (down from 10,332nd in 2019) and the 795th most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 42.72

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 27

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 1.53

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.74

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

A raisin in the sun
Afro-American families, Afro-Americans, Drama
1958
Les blancs
American drama, Drama, Scripts
1972
To Be Young, Gifted and Black
Drama, African American women civil rights workers, African American dramatists
In her first play, the now-classic *A Raisin in the Sun*, Hansberry introduced the lives of ordinary African Americans into our national theatrical repertory. Now, Hansberry tells her own life story in an autobiography that rings with the voice of its creator. "Brilliantly alive."—The New York Times.
1970
The United States in Literature
memory plays, autobiographical drama, Family
Contains: ... - [Young Goodman Brown](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL455569W/Young_Goodman_Brown) by Nathaniel Hawthorne ... - [An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL14863232W/Occurrence_at_Owl_Creek_Bridge) by Ambrose Bierce ... - [A Pair of Silk Stockings](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20078930W/A_Pair_of_Silk_Stockings) by Kate Chopin ... - [The Glass Menagerie](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL30293W) by Tennesse Williams
1985
A Raisin in the Sun
Drama, African American families, History
1959
The sign in Sidney Brustein's window
Drama, Husband and wife
1965

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Lorraine Hansberry ranks 6,203 out of 7,302. Before her are Sylvain Tesson, Birger Sjöberg, Bernice Rubens, Alain LeRoy Locke, Fríða Á. Sigurðardóttir, and Paolo Giordano. After her are Sida Košutić, Glenn Greenwald, Brian Jacques, Emma Willard, Flora Nwapa, and Pentti Haanpää.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1930, Lorraine Hansberry ranks 557. Before her are Geeta Dutt, Suzanne Morrow Francis, Gordon Pinsent, Tommy Kono, Nikolai Puchkov, and Yevgeny Maskinskov. After her are Frank Perry, Satya Vrat Shastri, Gun Röring, Yngve Brodd, Mara Corday, and Mary Costa. Among people deceased in 1965, Lorraine Hansberry ranks 225. Before her are Mary Boland, William Hogenson, Alfred Lane, Miller Anderson, Luigi Maiocco, and Geeta Bali. After her are Sida Košutić, Samuel King Allison, Eetje Sol, Gilbert Colgate, Vajiha Samadova, and Irving Bacon.

Others Born in 1930

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Others Deceased in 1965

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Lorraine Hansberry ranks 10,705 out of 20,380. Before her are Fyvush Finkel (1922), Richard Zare (1939), Charles Dumas (1937), Susan Solomon (1956), Lloyd Price (1933), and Summer Phoenix (1978). After her are Bob Bryan (1978), Michael D. Griffin (1949), Bret Michaels (1963), Ed Czerkiewicz (1913), George Follmer (1934), and Mississippi Fred McDowell (1906).

Others born in United States

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Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Lorraine Hansberry ranks 795. Before her are Gillian Flynn (1971), Stephen Vincent Benét (1898), Lester Bangs (1948), Amory Lovins (1947), Mike Godwin (1956), and Alain LeRoy Locke (1885). After her are Glenn Greenwald (1967), Emma Willard (1787), Cynthia Ozick (1928), Lawrence Venuti (1953), George Alec Effinger (1947), and N. Scott Momaday (1934).

American born Writers

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