Cover image: Richard Wright by Gordon Parks
Photo in the public domain

The Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine played an important role in the life of Richard Wright and his family when they moved to France in 1946.

The family stayed in a swank apartment at 166, avenue de Neuilly (now avenue de Charles de Gaulle) from August 1947 until May 1948.

166, avenue Charles de Gaulle, Neuilly-sur-Seine
© Entrée to Black Paris

Entrance to 166, avenue Charles de Gaulle
© Entrée to Black Paris

In Richard Wright - The Life and Times by Hazel Rowley, Rowley says the Wrights "did not like this sedate, wealthy district on the outskirts of the city, but the apartment was elegant and spacious..." 

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir visited the family there, and de Beauvoir described the apartment as being in a "sad wealthy district."

But the true significance of Neuilly for the Wrights lay in the American Hospital of Paris.

Founded in 1906, this private, non-profit institution is the only civilian hospital outside the U.S. that is accredited by the Joint Commission, an organization that sets the highest standards for health care around the world.

Post card of the American Hospital - 1960
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Hazel Rowley mentioned the hospital multiple times in her biography, mostly in reference to medical or surgical interventions:

• In August 1946, Wright's wife, Ellen, had an appendectomy. 
• In April 1948, Wright had his tonsils removed.
• In late September/early October 1953, Wright underwent a hernia operation.
• In January 1948, Ellen gave birth to the couple's daughter, Rachel.
• In August 1959, Wright was diagnosed with amoebic dysentery, a disease that would plague him for the rest of his life. 

The hospital practiced racial discrimination against African Americans prior to Wright's protest about this fact in 1951.  As an example, in an article published by Crisis magazine in its June-July 1951 issue, he states that "The American Hospital, in 25 years of existence, has never hired an American Negro."  Rowley said that "Some months later, after the press coverage initiated by Wright, the hospital would rethink its policy."

Today, the American Hospital has greatly expanded and changed its pedestrian entrance from 63, avenue Victor Hugo (shown in the post card above) to 55, boulevard du Château. It remains a roughly 20-minute walk from the apartment that the Wrights occupied in 1947-48.