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Gerald Early
Encyclopedia
Gerald L. Early is an American essay
ist and American culture
critic
. He is currently the Merle Kling Professor
of Modern letters, of English
, African studies
, African American studies
, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University
in St. Louis
, Missouri
.
He also served as a consultant on Ken Burns
' documentary film
s Baseball
and Jazz
and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
and The War
. He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Fresh Air
. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of Best American Essays series. He writes on topics as diverse as American literature
, the Korean War
, African American culture
, Afro-American autobiography
, non-fiction
prose
, baseball
, jazz
, prizefighting, Motown, Miles Davis
, Muhammad Ali
and Sammy Davis Jr.
in 1974. During Early's undergraduate years, he was introduced to the writings of Amiri Baraka and later credited the poet and playwright with influencing his own work. Early developed much of his writing style through involvement with the university newspaper. Ironically, his first major piece was a journalistic foray into the gang-related murder of a cousin.
After earning his B.A., Early returned to Philadelphia, where he became employed by the city government. He also spent six months monitoring gang activities through the Crisis Intervention Network before resuming his course work at Cornell University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in English literature in 1982. Early landed his first teaching job as an assistant professor of black studies at St. Louis's Washington University in 1982. He would steadily rise to a full professorship in both the English and the renamed African and Afro-American studies departments by 1990.
for essay collection The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture.
He has been nominated for the Grammy Award
Best Album Notes twice in 2001 for Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story and in 2002 for Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From The Harlem Renaissance.
On September 5, 2007, Professor Early was honored by Washington University with the unveiling of a portrait painted by Jamie Adams
which hangs in the Journals Reading Room of the university's Olin Library.
Essay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
ist and American culture
Culture of the United States
The Culture of the United States is a Western culture originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore...
critic
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
. He is currently the Merle Kling Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Modern letters, of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, African studies
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and societies of Africa .The field includes the study of:Culture of Africa, History of Africa , Anthropology of Africa , Politics of Africa, Economy of Africa African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and...
, African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
.
He also served as a consultant on Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
' documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s Baseball
Baseball (documentary)
Baseball is an 18½ hour, Emmy Award-winning documentary series by Ken Burns about the game of baseball. First broadcast on PBS, this was Burns' ninth documentary.- Format :...
and Jazz
Jazz (documentary)
Jazz was a 2000 documentary miniseries, directed by Ken Burns. Jazz was the last in a trilogy by Burns, following The Civil War and Baseball...
and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Geoffrey C. Ward ....
and The War
The War (documentary)
The War is a 2007 American seven-part documentary television mini-series about World War II from the perspective of the United States that premiered on September 23, 2007...
. He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Fresh Air
Fresh Air
Fresh Air is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States. The show is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its longtime host is Terry Gross. , the show was syndicated to 450 stations and claimed 4.5 million listeners. The show...
. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of Best American Essays series. He writes on topics as diverse as American literature
American literature
American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British...
, the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, African American culture
African American culture
African-American culture, also known as black culture, in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in...
, Afro-American autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
prose
Prose
Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, prizefighting, Motown, Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali is an American former professional boxer, philanthropist and social activist...
and Sammy Davis Jr.
Background and education
Gerald Lyn Early was born April 21, 1952, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Henry Early and Florence Fernandez Oglesby. His father (a baker) died when Early was nine months old, leaving his mother (a preschool teacher) to rear him and his two sisters on her own. Living in a poor area of the city, Early grew up befriending members of the Fifth and the South Street gangs, though he never became a member himself. Instead he focused on scholarly pursuits, graduating cum laude from the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1974. During Early's undergraduate years, he was introduced to the writings of Amiri Baraka and later credited the poet and playwright with influencing his own work. Early developed much of his writing style through involvement with the university newspaper. Ironically, his first major piece was a journalistic foray into the gang-related murder of a cousin.
After earning his B.A., Early returned to Philadelphia, where he became employed by the city government. He also spent six months monitoring gang activities through the Crisis Intervention Network before resuming his course work at Cornell University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in English literature in 1982. Early landed his first teaching job as an assistant professor of black studies at St. Louis's Washington University in 1982. He would steadily rise to a full professorship in both the English and the renamed African and Afro-American studies departments by 1990.
Personal life
On August 27, 1977, Early married Ida Haynes, a college administrator, They have two children, Linnet Kristen Haynes Early and Rosalind Lenora Haynes Early.Awards and honors
Early won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle AwardNational Book Critics Circle
The National Book Critics Circle is an American tax-exempt organization for active book reviewers. Its flagship is the National Book Critics Circle Award....
for essay collection The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture.
He has been nominated for the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
Best Album Notes twice in 2001 for Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story and in 2002 for Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From The Harlem Renaissance.
On September 5, 2007, Professor Early was honored by Washington University with the unveiling of a portrait painted by Jamie Adams
Jamie Adams
Jamie Adams is a Scottish professional association football player who currently plays for St. Johnstone.-Kilmarnock:Adams was a product of Kilmarnock's youth system, signing for the club in the summer of 2004....
which hangs in the Journals Reading Room of the university's Olin Library.
Works
- Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture (1989)
- Life with Daughters:Watching the Miss America Pageant (1990)
- The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture (1994)
- Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood (1994) (memoirMemoirA memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
) - One Nation Under a Groove: Motown & American Culture (1994) (music historyMusic historyMusic history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time...
) - How the War in the Streets Is Won: Poems on the Quest of Love and Faith (Time Being Books, 1995) (poetryPoetryPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
) - Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (2001) nominated for a Grammy (Best Album Notes)
- Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance (2002) (nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album NotesGrammy Award for Best Album NotesThe Grammy Award for Best Album Notes has been presented since 1964. From 1973 to 1976, a separate award was presented for Best Album Notes - Classical. Those awards are listed under those years below. The award recognizes albums with excellent liner notes...
)
Editing work
- Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity and the Ambivalence of Assimilation (1993)
- Ain't But a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings About St. Louis (1998)
- Body Language: Writers on Sport (1998)
- The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998)
- Miles Davis and American Culture (2001)
- The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader (2001)
- Black America in the 1960s (2003)
- My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen(1991)
- Speech and Power: The African-American Essay in Its Cultural Content(1993)