August Wilson

This link is interesting because it gives a timeline of Wilson's life and his works. If you read down the list, it shows some things that you might not have known about Wilson's life. For example, Wilson was the only black student at a catholic high school where students threatened and abused him until he left. He left school and educated himself through books from the library, which shows how motivated he was in all aspects of his life. Fences has the record for the most money brought in from a non-musical in the first year(11 million dollars) on broadway. The timeline on this site does an excellent job of showing how Wilson's life evolved throughout the years.
http://www.post-gazette.com/magazine/19991216awtimeline9.asp