Overview

Discover the unique mind and humane vision of an under-recognized American author. Encompassing themes of race, education, fame, law, and America's past and future, these essays are James Alan McPherson at his most prescient and invaluable. Born in segregated 1940s Georgia, McPherson graduated from Harvard Law School only to give up law and become a writer. In 1978, he became the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. But all the while, McPherson was also writing and publishing nonfiction that stand beside contemporaries such as James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as this collection amply proves. These essays range from McPherson's profile of comedian Richard Pryor on the cusp of his stardom; a moving tribute to his mentor, Ralph Ellison; a near-fatal battle with viral meningitis; and the story of how McPherson became a reluctant landlord to an elderly Black woman and her family. There are meditations on family as the author travels to Disneyland with his daughter, on the nuances of a neighborhood debate about naming a street after Malcolm X or Dr. Martin Luther King, and, throughout, those connections that make us most deeply human--including connections between writer and listener. This collection is for anyone seeking a better understanding of our world and a connection to a wise and wickedly funny writer who speaks with forceful relevance and clarity across the decades.

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Reviews

A writer of insight, sympathy, and humor and one of the most gifted young Americans I've had the privilege to read. -- Ralph Ellison, praise for the author

"""On Becoming an American Writer is, in short, a manifesto for our shared humanity, and it's needed now more than ever."" -- ""Jerald Walker, author of How to Make a Slave"" ""I wish I could send a copy of this extraordinary book to everyone I have ever met--and to everyone I have yet to meet."" -- ""Francine Prose, author of The Vixen"" ""McPherson was a gifted outlier, and his essays shine with intuitive, canny, unironic, sometimes raw, sometimes disorderly brilliance."" -- ""Richard Ford, New York Times bestselling author"" ""A writer of insight, sympathy, and humor and one of the most gifted young Americans I've had the privilege to read."" -- ""Ralph Ellison, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author"" ""Powerfully written and provocative, with subtle but pointed polemics often in play."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"""

On Becoming an American Writer is, in short, a manifesto for our shared humanity, and it's needed now more than ever. -- Jerald Walker, author of How to Make a Slave I wish I could send a copy of this extraordinary book to everyone I have ever met--and to everyone I have yet to meet. -- Francine Prose, author of The Vixen McPherson was a gifted outlier, and his essays shine with intuitive, canny, unironic, sometimes raw, sometimes disorderly brilliance. -- Richard Ford, New York Times bestselling author A writer of insight, sympathy, and humor and one of the most gifted young Americans I've had the privilege to read. -- Ralph Ellison, National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author, praise for the author Powerfully written and provocative, with subtle but pointed polemics often in play. -- Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

James Alan McPherson (1943-2016) was an essayist and fiction writer, the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Born in Savannah, Georgia, and a graduate of Harvard Law School, McPherson was a contributor to The Atlantic, Esquire, Playboy, and many other publications, and was a professor emeritus at the Iowa Writers's Workshop until his death. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, six-time NBA Most Valuable Player, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Giant Steps, as well as Kareem and A Season on the Reservation. Anthony Walton is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Mississippi, as well as the coauthor of Reverend Al Sharpton's book Go and Tell the Pharoah. Cary Hite is an experienced actor and audiobook narrator who has had the pleasure of working with a number of publishing houses. An Earphones Award-winner, he currently resides in New York City.

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