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James Alan McPherson, the first black man to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, is born in Savannah, Georgia.
McPherson overcame the crushing poverty of his childhood and ultimately attended Harvard Law School. At age 25, he entered a short story contest sponsored by The Atlantic and won. The following year, he became a contributing editor to the magazine. In 1969, his first collection of short fiction, Hue and Cry, appeared. McPherson became a writing teacher, working at Morgan State University in Washington, D.C., and later at University of Virginia. His second story collection, Elbow Room, was published in 1977 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. McPherson was the first black man to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He also won a $192,000 MacArthur “genius” grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Despite his success, McPherson’s life began to unravel. His interracial marriage collapsed, and a bitter custody battle over his daughter followed. A favorite student killed himself. McPherson spent a year teaching at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop but stopped publishing his work. More than 20 years passed before he published his next book, Crabcakes, a memoir about his journey to Japan to escape the burden of racism.
McPherson overcame the crushing poverty of his childhood and ultimately attended Harvard Law School. At age 25, he entered a short story contest sponsored by The Atlantic and won. The following year, he became a contributing editor to the magazine. In 1969, his first collection of short fiction, Hue and Cry, appeared. McPherson became a writing teacher, working at Morgan State University in Washington, D.C., and later at University of Virginia. His second story collection, Elbow Room, was published in 1977 and won the Pulitzer Prize the following year. McPherson was the first black man to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. He also won a $192,000 MacArthur “genius” grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Despite his success, McPherson’s life began to unravel. His interracial marriage collapsed, and a bitter custody battle over his daughter followed. A favorite student killed himself. McPherson spent a year teaching at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop but stopped publishing his work. More than 20 years passed before he published his next book, Crabcakes, a memoir about his journey to Japan to escape the burden of racism.
James Alan McPherson is born
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James Alan McPherson A Simple Tribute
James Alan McPherson (16 September 1943 - 27 July 2016) Rest in Peace Pay Your Tribute Share Your Thoughts Twitter: https://twitter.com/RIP3ooo Facebook:...
Thank you my friend TSgt Joe C. for reminding us that September 16 is the anniversary of the birth of Pulitzer Prize for fiction author James Alan McPherson for his second story collection, "Elbow Room" published in 1977 won the Pulitzer Prize for in 1978.
Rest in peace James Alan McPherson
1. Background from while he was alive desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/james-alan-mcpherson
"James Alan McPherson loves books. He loves to read them and to have them around him.
Unless you ask, McPherson isn't likely to mention the book he himself wrote that won a Pulitzer Prize.
"That was a long time ago," says Iowa City's leading man of letters. His book of short stories, "Elbow Room" (1977), brought him the Pulitzer in 1978.
McPherson, the first black person to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, shuns the spotlight and prefers a quiet life teaching in the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop.
His correct title is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor. If you ask for his title, he says, "Teacher."
His schedule is full.
At present, with Writers' Workshop director Frank Conroy's upcoming retirement, McPherson is helping to screen prospective applicants for the workshop. To do so, McPherson helps read some of the writing samples submitted by 1,200 workshop aspirants. Only 25 to 30 hopefuls are chosen each year.
And every Monday at 1 p.m. McPherson is at Emerson Point, a managed care facility where some of Iowa City's elderly live. There he helps residents learn the art of writing fiction. It's his way of giving back to the community, "of making a contribution," he says.The writer was born Sept. 16, 1943, in Savannah, Ga., the second oldest of four children of James Alan McPherson Sr. and his wife, Mabel.
The senior McPherson, a master electrician, was incarcerated as a result of gambling and alcohol problems, and Mabel McPherson worked as a maid to provide for her two sons and two daughters.
James Jr. delivered newspapers to earn money, and when he had free time, he spent it at Savannah's Carnegie Public Library. Books, he says, "opened up new worlds to me. They still do."He adds that the library gave him "a feeling of comfort."
McPherson worked his way through college as a janitor and railroad waiter, and received his bachelor's degree from Morris Brown College in Atlanta in 1965. He followed that with a law degree from Harvard University in 1968 - one of America's most turbulent years. He chose not to go into the legal profession because, he says, he was disillusioned.
He turned to writing and gained recognition in 1968 for "Gold Coast," taken from his first published volume of short fiction, "Hue and Cry." It won a contest in the Atlantic Monthly. Publishers Weekly described him as a writer who is "young, black, extremely talented . . . and very different."McPherson then earned a master's degree from the U of I in 1972, where he had been a teaching assistant in 1968 and 1969.
With experience from teaching posts in California, Maryland and Virginia, McPherson returned to the U of I in 1981 as a professor of creative writing.
Also in 1981, he received from the MacArthur Foundation a grant of $191,000, allowing him time to write without worrying how to make a living at the same time. He continued to write, but concentrated on being a good father and teacher.
"Crabcakes"
After two decades of writing essays, articles and short stories, but not books, McPherson was back in the limelight in 1998 with "Crabcakes," a personal memoir about racial prejudice, among other things. The New York Times named it "Notable Book of the Year." McPherson's "A Region Not Home" was published in 2000. McPherson also contributed to "Outside In: African American History in Iowa 1838-1998" (2001).McPherson prefers to write the old-fashioned way: in longhand, on a legal pad, sitting in his bathrobe at the kitchen table. Only later does he transfer the words into computer format.
In 1990, he was honored by the U of I for excellence in teaching.
Movie buff
If McPherson isn't working, evenings find him watching a video - he loves classic movies - writing, or perhaps reading some of the 20-odd magazines he subscribes to in order to be aware of different viewpoints. McPherson, the first writer in his family, began using both his first and middle names when readers and publishers confused him with historian James McPherson.
The writer is divorced, having lost a custody battle for his only child, Rachel, when she was a teen. She grew up with her mother in Charlottesville, Va., and in order to establish a strong bond with her, McPherson made monthly flights to be with her.
Now McPherson is happy because in early March Rachel will be moving to Iowa City to be closer to her father. Because McPherson doesn't have much time right now to devote to writing, he isn't talking about any projects he has started.
"If you talk about them, they won't get done," he says."
2. Background after he died from blackpast.org/aah/mcpherson-james-alan-1943-2016
"McPherson, James Alan (1943–2016)
"Image Ownership: Public Domain"
James Alan McPherson was an American essayist and short story writer. He was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and one of the first to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
McPherson was born on September 16, 1943, in Savannah, Georgia. His father was an electrician and his mother was a maid. McPherson attended Morris Brown College and then Morgan State University for two years. He returned to Morris Brown College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and English in 1965. McPherson then attended Harvard University Law School located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working as a janitor to pay for his school expenses. He graduated with a law degree in 1968. Instead of choosing a legal career, McPherson enrolled in the Writers’ Workshop program at the University of Iowa where he completed his Master of Fine Arts in 1971.
James McPherson’s first short story, “Gold Coast,” was published in the Atlantic while he was still in law school. The story, partly autobiographical, describes a complicated friendship between a young black janitor, aspiring writer, and his supervisor. In 1969 his short story, “Hue and Cry,” earned him a position as a contributing editor for the Atlantic.
McPherson’s next collection of short stories published as the anthology, Elbow Room (1977), earned him the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1978, making him the first black writer to win the award. Influenced by older writers like Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison, who became his mentors and friends, McPherson also produced non-fiction works, including Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture (1976), co-edited with Miller Williams, and Crab-cakes, a 1998 memoir about his life and cultural identity. In 2000 he published A Region Not Home: Reflections from Exile.
McPherson’s work has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and short story anthologies, including Best American Short Stores (1969). He edited issues for the Iowa Review and Ploughshares, and co-edited an essay collection called Fathering Daughters: Reflections by Men (1998).
McPherson also taught literature and writing at the University of California at Santa Cruz, (1969–1971), Morgan State University (1975–1976), and the University of Virginia (1976–1991). In 1981 McPherson joined the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and remained associated with it for the remainder of his life. He was acting director of the Workshop (2005–2007) following the death of Frank Conroy. McPherson was also a visiting scholar at Yale Law School (1978–1979) and Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1997–1998). He has lectured in Japan at Meiji University and Chiba University.
McPherson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972, and in 1995 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011 McPherson was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Paul Engle Award from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.
On July 27, 2016, James Alan McPherson died in a hospice in Iowa City, Iowa, due to complications of pneumonia. He was seventy years old. McPherson had a daughter named Rachel from his first marriage with Sarah Charlton which ended in divorce. He also had a son named Benjamin from another relationship.
Sources:
“James McPherson” Biography,biography.com/people/james-alan-mcpherson-38864#teaching-career-and-honors; “James McPherson (obituary)” The Des Moines Register, data.desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/james-alan-mcpherson; “James McPherson,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/james-alan-mcpherson-b-1943. "
James Alan McPherson ● A Simple Tribute
James Alan McPherson (16 September 1943 - 27 July 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsCOPApT3uA
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence
Rest in peace James Alan McPherson
1. Background from while he was alive desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/james-alan-mcpherson
"James Alan McPherson loves books. He loves to read them and to have them around him.
Unless you ask, McPherson isn't likely to mention the book he himself wrote that won a Pulitzer Prize.
"That was a long time ago," says Iowa City's leading man of letters. His book of short stories, "Elbow Room" (1977), brought him the Pulitzer in 1978.
McPherson, the first black person to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, shuns the spotlight and prefers a quiet life teaching in the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop.
His correct title is F. Wendell Miller Distinguished Professor. If you ask for his title, he says, "Teacher."
His schedule is full.
At present, with Writers' Workshop director Frank Conroy's upcoming retirement, McPherson is helping to screen prospective applicants for the workshop. To do so, McPherson helps read some of the writing samples submitted by 1,200 workshop aspirants. Only 25 to 30 hopefuls are chosen each year.
And every Monday at 1 p.m. McPherson is at Emerson Point, a managed care facility where some of Iowa City's elderly live. There he helps residents learn the art of writing fiction. It's his way of giving back to the community, "of making a contribution," he says.The writer was born Sept. 16, 1943, in Savannah, Ga., the second oldest of four children of James Alan McPherson Sr. and his wife, Mabel.
The senior McPherson, a master electrician, was incarcerated as a result of gambling and alcohol problems, and Mabel McPherson worked as a maid to provide for her two sons and two daughters.
James Jr. delivered newspapers to earn money, and when he had free time, he spent it at Savannah's Carnegie Public Library. Books, he says, "opened up new worlds to me. They still do."He adds that the library gave him "a feeling of comfort."
McPherson worked his way through college as a janitor and railroad waiter, and received his bachelor's degree from Morris Brown College in Atlanta in 1965. He followed that with a law degree from Harvard University in 1968 - one of America's most turbulent years. He chose not to go into the legal profession because, he says, he was disillusioned.
He turned to writing and gained recognition in 1968 for "Gold Coast," taken from his first published volume of short fiction, "Hue and Cry." It won a contest in the Atlantic Monthly. Publishers Weekly described him as a writer who is "young, black, extremely talented . . . and very different."McPherson then earned a master's degree from the U of I in 1972, where he had been a teaching assistant in 1968 and 1969.
With experience from teaching posts in California, Maryland and Virginia, McPherson returned to the U of I in 1981 as a professor of creative writing.
Also in 1981, he received from the MacArthur Foundation a grant of $191,000, allowing him time to write without worrying how to make a living at the same time. He continued to write, but concentrated on being a good father and teacher.
"Crabcakes"
After two decades of writing essays, articles and short stories, but not books, McPherson was back in the limelight in 1998 with "Crabcakes," a personal memoir about racial prejudice, among other things. The New York Times named it "Notable Book of the Year." McPherson's "A Region Not Home" was published in 2000. McPherson also contributed to "Outside In: African American History in Iowa 1838-1998" (2001).McPherson prefers to write the old-fashioned way: in longhand, on a legal pad, sitting in his bathrobe at the kitchen table. Only later does he transfer the words into computer format.
In 1990, he was honored by the U of I for excellence in teaching.
Movie buff
If McPherson isn't working, evenings find him watching a video - he loves classic movies - writing, or perhaps reading some of the 20-odd magazines he subscribes to in order to be aware of different viewpoints. McPherson, the first writer in his family, began using both his first and middle names when readers and publishers confused him with historian James McPherson.
The writer is divorced, having lost a custody battle for his only child, Rachel, when she was a teen. She grew up with her mother in Charlottesville, Va., and in order to establish a strong bond with her, McPherson made monthly flights to be with her.
Now McPherson is happy because in early March Rachel will be moving to Iowa City to be closer to her father. Because McPherson doesn't have much time right now to devote to writing, he isn't talking about any projects he has started.
"If you talk about them, they won't get done," he says."
2. Background after he died from blackpast.org/aah/mcpherson-james-alan-1943-2016
"McPherson, James Alan (1943–2016)
"Image Ownership: Public Domain"
James Alan McPherson was an American essayist and short story writer. He was the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and one of the first to receive a MacArthur Fellowship.
McPherson was born on September 16, 1943, in Savannah, Georgia. His father was an electrician and his mother was a maid. McPherson attended Morris Brown College and then Morgan State University for two years. He returned to Morris Brown College and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History and English in 1965. McPherson then attended Harvard University Law School located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, working as a janitor to pay for his school expenses. He graduated with a law degree in 1968. Instead of choosing a legal career, McPherson enrolled in the Writers’ Workshop program at the University of Iowa where he completed his Master of Fine Arts in 1971.
James McPherson’s first short story, “Gold Coast,” was published in the Atlantic while he was still in law school. The story, partly autobiographical, describes a complicated friendship between a young black janitor, aspiring writer, and his supervisor. In 1969 his short story, “Hue and Cry,” earned him a position as a contributing editor for the Atlantic.
McPherson’s next collection of short stories published as the anthology, Elbow Room (1977), earned him the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1978, making him the first black writer to win the award. Influenced by older writers like Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison, who became his mentors and friends, McPherson also produced non-fiction works, including Railroad: Trains and Train People in American Culture (1976), co-edited with Miller Williams, and Crab-cakes, a 1998 memoir about his life and cultural identity. In 2000 he published A Region Not Home: Reflections from Exile.
McPherson’s work has appeared in numerous journals, magazines, and short story anthologies, including Best American Short Stores (1969). He edited issues for the Iowa Review and Ploughshares, and co-edited an essay collection called Fathering Daughters: Reflections by Men (1998).
McPherson also taught literature and writing at the University of California at Santa Cruz, (1969–1971), Morgan State University (1975–1976), and the University of Virginia (1976–1991). In 1981 McPherson joined the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and remained associated with it for the remainder of his life. He was acting director of the Workshop (2005–2007) following the death of Frank Conroy. McPherson was also a visiting scholar at Yale Law School (1978–1979) and Stanford University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (1997–1998). He has lectured in Japan at Meiji University and Chiba University.
McPherson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972, and in 1995 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011 McPherson was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Paul Engle Award from the Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature.
On July 27, 2016, James Alan McPherson died in a hospice in Iowa City, Iowa, due to complications of pneumonia. He was seventy years old. McPherson had a daughter named Rachel from his first marriage with Sarah Charlton which ended in divorce. He also had a son named Benjamin from another relationship.
Sources:
“James McPherson” Biography,biography.com/people/james-alan-mcpherson-38864#teaching-career-and-honors; “James McPherson (obituary)” The Des Moines Register, data.desmoinesregister.com/famous-iowans/james-alan-mcpherson; “James McPherson,” New Georgia Encyclopedia, georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/james-alan-mcpherson-b-1943. "
James Alan McPherson ● A Simple Tribute
James Alan McPherson (16 September 1943 - 27 July 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsCOPApT3uA
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Lt Col Charlie Brown Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Maj Marty Hogan SCPO Morris Ramsey SGT Mark Halmrast Sgt Randy Wilber Sgt John H. SGT Gregory Lawritson CPL Dave Hoover SPC Margaret Higgins SSgt Brian Brakke 1stSgt Eugene Harless CPT Scott Sharon PO1 H Gene Lawrence
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