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Article: Black Fiction's great griot master: John Oliver Killens (1916-1987) ushered in a new era of the African American novel in 1954 and subsequently mentored a whole generation of black fiction talent. So why is most of his work out of print?(tribute)(Biography)
- Article from:
- Black Issues Book Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Cox, Matthews & Associates. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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JOHN OLIVER KILLENS's large, multilayered, debut novel, Youngblood, was published in May 1954, the same month that the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. As we note the 50th anniversary of that landmark act of jurisprudence, compelling reasons exist to remember and to celebrate Killens as one of our most important cultural figures.
Taken as a whole, the fiction of John Oliver Killens anticipates the drama of playwright August Wilson, who is approaching the conclusion of a cycle of 10 plays, each designed to illustrate African American life in one of the decades of the 20th century. Similarly, most of Killens's major works connect to a ...