Although Wright ranks first in postal examination, he turns down a permanent position to move to New York City to pursue his writing career. He stays briefly in Greenwich Village and then moves to Harlem, where he becomes the Harlem editor of the Daily Worker. He helps to launch the magazine New Challenge. He publishes "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" in American Stuff: WPA Writers' Anthology. "Blueprint for Negro Writing" appears in the first and only issue of New Challenge. He becomes friends with Ralph Ellison. A second novel manuscript, "Tarbaby's Dawn," makes the rounds with publishers and receives constant rejection; it is never published. "Fire and Cloud" wins first prize in Story Magazine's contest.
With Paul Reynolds, Jr., as literary agent, Wright pursues the publication of Uncle Tom's Children: Four Novellas with Harper and Brothers. The volume is to include "Big Boy Leaves Home," "Down by the Riverside," "Long Black Song," and "Fire and Cloud." His editor at Harper is Edward Aswell. Uncle Tom's Children is published in March to wide acclaim. Wright almost gets married to his landlady's daughter, but he cancels this plan, telling friends that the woman had congenital syphilis. "Bright and Morning Star" appears in New Masses, and Wright soon joins that magazine's editorial board. He works on a new novel and asks Margaret Walker to send him newspaper clippings from the Robert Nixon case in Chicago. In October, he finishes the first draft of this novel, which he calls Native Son. "Fire and Cloud" wins the O. Henry Memorial Award.
Wright meets Ellen Poplar. By February he has a completed second draft of Native Son. After winning a Guggenheim Fellowship, Wright resigns from the Federal Writers' Project. In June, he finishes Native Son. Although Wright had considered marrying Ellen Poplar, he marries Dhima Rose Meadman, a modern-dance teacher. Ralph Ellison is his best man. He begins work on a new novel, "Little Sister," which is never published.
Native Son is published in March and the Book-of-the-Month Club offers it as a main selection. The book is banned in Birmingham, Alabama, libraries. Travels and works in Mexico, but marital pressures get to him, and he leaves Mexico alone in June to travel the American South. He visits his father, but they remain distant. Uncle Tom's Children is reissued with two additions: "Bright and Morning Star" and "The Ethics of Living Jim Crow." Wright starts divorce proceedings. Unhappy with the stage adaptation of Native Son that Paul Green has been working on, Wright and John Houseman revise it with Orson Welles in mind as director.