What happens to Richard after he reads H.L. Mencken?Black Boy by Richard Wright

After Richard reads an editorial in a newspaper that
attacks Henry Louis Mencken, he is curious to learn why the paper would attack a white
man.  He asks a co-worker, an Irish Catholic named Falk if he can borrow his library
card; Falk lends it, but cautions Richard to be careful.  Forging a note supposedly from
Falk, Richard requests some books by Mencken.  Mencken's bold style and verbal jousting
excite Richard's old interest in reading.  In addition, Mencken wrote satiric articles
attacking ignorance, intolerance, fraudulence, and fundamentalist Christianity--topics
with which Richard was quite familiar.  Mencken also was a student of American English
and criticized American life and culture.

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In Chapter 13 after he finishes Mencken's
A Book of Prefaces,Richard writes, I concluded the book with the
conviction that I had somehow overlooked something terribly important in life. I had
once tried to write, had once reveled in feeling had let my crude imagination roam, but
the impulse to dream had been slowly beaten out of me by experience.  Now it surged up
again, and I hungered for books, new ways of seeing and
feeling.

Richard's experience
of reading H. L. Mencken is a turning point for Richard as he awakens many of his
childhood feelings.  After this experience, Richard acquires a strong desire to write,
and his life becomes much more focused.