Short Cuts

The original thing about this film is that splicing Raymond Carver's short stories into a film gives them an added coherence, and the characters that do not meet each other in the published stories, are quite credible as people that live close to each other in the film. Altman gave us a brilliant piece of social criticism.

Black Boy

Richard Wright's autobiographical novel Black Boy (1945, 1993) was made into a documentary film (1995).  The following is part one of the film, including interviews with authors such as Ralph Ellison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlQXVLusmjI

His best-selling Native Son (1940) was produced as a film in 1951 and 1986.  The first film version was produced by Pierre Chenal and made in Buenos Aires.  Wright played the part of Bigger Thomas.  See article in Time (2007).

Gary Douran reads from the opening of Native Son here:

A Lesson Before Dying

Trailer for the film:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Banned almost as soon as it was published, for its language, the book has since been adapted into a film 7 times.

The 1939 version, with Mickey Rooney as Huck:



Links:
The Mark Twain House & Museum (Hartford, Connecticut).
Mark Twain in His Times (University of Virginia).