Richard Pryor: A Life from Beginning to End

Richard Pryor was one of the greatest comedic minds of all time, but his stand-up routine was more than just comedy. His deft navigation through the human condition often made it seem like his comic observations were more akin to a cathartic form of group therapy. As Pryor ran through all the ills of human existence, it was as if he were embarking upon a great purging of the psyche for both him and the audience.

Richard Pryor certainly didn’t have it easy in life. He was raised with a brothel as a backdrop, where his own grandmother served as a madam. He had to square all this with the rigid social conventions of the 1950s and early 1960s, in which he grew up. Initially, Pryor tried to keep all of his skeletons in his closet before he finally decided to make full use of them. In this book, we plumb the depths of this comedic genius, exploring his life and his art in full.