- Born:
- June 14, 1941, Washington, D.C., U.S. (age 85)
- Awards And Honors:
- PEN/Faulkner Award (1991)
- PEN/Faulkner Award (1984)
- Notable Works:
- âA Glance Awayâ
- âAmerican Historiesâ
- âBrothers and Keepersâ
- âDamballahâ
- âFanonâ
- âFatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Societyâ
- âFeverâ
- âHiding Placeâ
- âHomewood Trilogyâ
- âHoop Roots: Basketball, Race, and Loveâ
- âHurry Homeâ
- âSent for You Yesterdayâ
- âSlaveroadâ
- âThe Cattle Killingâ
- âThe Lynchersâ
- âThe Stories of John Edgar Widemanâ
- âWriting to Save a Life: The Louis Till Fileâ
- âYou Made Me Love You: Selected Stories, 1981â2018â
John Edgar Wideman
-
Who is John Edgar Wideman?
John Edgar Wideman (born in 1941) is an American author known for his lyrical and intricate style in novels that explore the experiences of African American men in contemporary urban America. His works often blend fiction with autobiography and nonfiction.
Wideman's works include A Glance Away, Hurry Home, and The Lynchers. The Homewood Trilogy, consisting of Hiding Place, Sent for You Yesterday, and Damballah, explores family, community, and the impact of slavery. Sent for You Yesterday and Philadelphia Fire both earned him the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Wideman taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Wyoming, the University of Massachusetts, and Brown University. His other works include short story collections, memoirs, and novels such as The Cattle Killing and Fanon. In 2016, he published Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, a biography of Emmett Till's father.
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What kinds of books does John Edgar Wideman write?
John Edgar Wideman is known for his lyrical and intricate literary style in novels that explore the experiences of African American men in contemporary urban America. Wideman's works often blend fiction with elements of autobiography and nonfiction.
Wideman's books include novels, short story collections, memoirs, and biographies:
* Novels A Glance Away, Hurry Home, The Lynchers, Hiding Place, Sent for You Yesterday, Philadelphia Fire, The Cattle Killing, and Fanon.
* Short story collections Damballah, Fever, The Stories of John Edgar Wideman, American Histories, and You Made Me Love You: Selected Stories, 1981â2018.
* Non-fiction Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society, Hoop Roots: Basketball, Race, and Love, Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, and Slaveroad.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where did John Edgar Wideman grow up?
John Edgar Wideman was born in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 1941, but he spent his childhood in the Homewood neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Homewood, a working-class African American section, later became the setting for many of his novels. Wideman lived there until he was 12 years old.
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What are some important themes in his writing?
John Edgar Wideman is known for his lyrical and intricate literary style, often focusing on the experiences of African American men in contemporary urban America.
Important themes in his writing:
* Exploration of family and community, particularly the historical experiences of African Americans, and the impact of slavery.
* Examination of interracial issues.
* Contemplation of the role of the Black intellectual, often through personal relationships.
* Incorporation of autobiography and nonfiction to bend the confines of the fiction genre.
* Reflection on incarceration and its impact.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How has his life and family influenced his stories?
John Edgar Wideman's life and family experiences profoundly influenced his writing, particularly his exploration of the African American experience in urban America. His upbringing in the working-class, African American section of Pittsburgh called Homewood, became the setting for many of his novels.
Wideman's Homewood Trilogy explores themes of family, community, and the impact of slavery on African Americans. His nonfiction work, Brothers and Keepers, reflects on his relationship with his brother who was serving a life sentence in prison, while Philadelphia Fire reflects on his son's incarceration. Wideman's memoirs, such as Fatheralong, further explore themes of family, race, and society, demonstrating the significant influence of his personal life on his literary work.
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What awards or recognition has John Edgar Wideman received for his work?
John Edgar Wideman, celebrated for his lyrical style and exploration of the African American experience, has received several awards and recognitions for his work. He was the first author to twice receive the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, for Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990). Wideman's other honors include the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature (1986), a MacArthur Fellowship (1993), the O. Henry Prize (2000), the Langston Hughes Medal (2004), and a Lannan literary fellowship for lifetime achievement (2018). His memoir, Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society (1994), was also a finalist for a National Book Award, and his novel The Cattle Killing (1996) won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for best historical fiction.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an American writer regarded for his lyrical, intricate literary style in novels about the experiences of African American men in contemporary urban America. Many of Widemanâs novels bend the confines of the fiction genre, incorporating elements of autobiography and nonfiction. He was the first author to twice receive the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, for the novels Sent for You Yesterday (1983) and Philadelphia Fire (1990).
Background and education
Until the age of 12, Wideman lived in Homewood, a working-class African American section of Pittsburgh, which later became the setting of many of his novels. An outstanding scholar and athlete at the University of Pennsylvania (B.A., 1963), he was the subject of a profile in Look magazine titled âThe Astonishing John Widemanâ while still a college student and became the second African American to receive a Rhodes scholarship to the University of Oxford (B.Ph., 1966).
Books and teaching career
Wideman joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, and the following year he published his first novel, A Glance Away, about a day in the lives of a reformed drug user and a homosexual English professor. His second novel, Hurry Home (1970), is the story of an intellectual alienated from his Black ancestry and the Black community. After serving as director of the universityâs Afro-American studies program from 1971 to 1973, Wideman published The Lynchers (1973), his first novel to focus on interracial issues.
Wideman left Pennsylvania to become a professor at the University of Wyoming (1975â85). His next work, the so-called Homewood Trilogy, is an historical exploration of family and community. Comprising two novels, Hiding Place (1981) and Sent for You Yesterday, and a collection of short stories, Damballah (1981), the trilogy also examines the impact of slavery on African Americans. The three works received praise from many critics, and Sent for You Yesterday was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In Brothers and Keepers (1984), Widemanâs first nonfiction book, he contemplates the role of the Black intellectual by studying his relationship with his brother, who was serving a life sentence in prison.
Wideman subsequently taught at the University of Massachusetts and at Brown University, retiring from the latter university in 2014. In 1991, after the publication of Philadelphia Fire, a novel that looks at the Black liberation organization MOVE and reflects on Widemanâs son, who was incarcerated for 30 years for a murder he committed as a teenager, Wideman received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for the second time.
Widemanâs short-story collections include Fever (1989), The Stories of John Edgar Wideman (1992), American Histories (2018), and You Made Me Love You: Selected Stories, 1981â2018 (2021). Among his other works are the memoirs Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society (1994; a finalist for a National Book Award) and Hoop Roots: Basketball, Race, and Love (2001) as well as the novels The Cattle Killing (1996; winner of the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for best historical fiction) and Fanon (2008).
In 2016 Wideman published Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File, a biography of the father of Emmett Till, a Black teenager whose murder in 1955 catalyzed the emerging civil rights movement. The book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in general nonfiction. Slaveroad (2024) explores the title term and the experience of African Americans through a series of interrelated essays that blend memoir, history, and biography.
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Honors
Widemanâs many honors include the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature (1986), a MacArthur Fellowship (1993), the O. Henry Prize (2000), the Langston Hughes Medal (2004), and a Lannan literary fellowship for lifetime achievement (2018).