John Oliver Killens : a life of Black literary activism / Keith Gilyard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gilyard, Keith, 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

African American authors--Biography.

African American authors.

African Americans--Intellectual life--20th century.

African Americans.

Killens, John Oliver, 1916-1987.

Killens, John Oliver.

Killens, John Oliver, 1916-1987--Political activity.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (457 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Athens, Ga. : University of Georgia Press, c2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

John Oliver Killens's politically charged novels And Then We Heard the Thunder and The Cotillion; or One Good Bull Is Half the Herd, were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His works of fiction and nonfiction, the most famous of which is his novel Youngblood, have been translated into more than a dozen languages. An influential novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and teacher, he was the founding chair of the Harlem Writers Guild and mentored a generation of black writers at Fisk, Howard, Columbia, and elsewhere. Killens is recognized as the spiritual father of the Black Arts Movement. In this first major biography of Killens, Keith Gilyard examines the life and career of the man who was perhaps the premier African American writer-activist from the 1950s to the 1980s. Gilyard extends his focus to the broad boundaries of Killens's times and literary achievement-from the Old Left to the Black Arts Movement and beyond. Figuring prominently in these pages are the many important African American artists and political figures connected to the author from the 1930s to the 1980s-W. E. B. Du Bois, Paul Robeson, Alphaeus Hunton, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harry Belafonte, and Maya Angelou, among others.

Contents:

A white man's republic, 1915-1928

Avoiding the river, 1928-1936

Mr. Killens, 1936-1942

Chasing the double victory, 1942-1945

None as radical as Mickey Mouse, 1945-1948

The efficacy of struggle, 1948-1949

A colored man who happened to write, 1949-1951

The poetry, energy, and convictions, 1951-1954

Mr. Youngblood, 1954-1955

Stalking the truth, 1955-1957

Rights and rites, 1958-1959

Journey to genesis, 1959-1961

Thundering genius, 1961-1963

It doesn't hurt to review, 1963-1964

Statesmanlike work, 1964

In residence, 1965-1966

Explaining dissent, 1966-1967

New Black, 1967-1968

We must construct a monument, 1968-1969

Champeenship of blackness, 1970-1971

Long-distance running, 1971-1974

I always said class and race, 1974-1977

Pushing Pushkin, 1977-1982

For freedom, 1982-1986

Dr. K's run, 1986-1987.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613252999

9781283252997

1283252996

9780820341958

0820341959

OCLC:

753324207