Leon Forrest
Encyclopedia
Leon Richard Forrest was an African American
novelist
. His novels concerned mythology, history, and Chicago.
Forrest was born into a middle-class family in Chicago. His mother was Catholic
and from New Orleans
, while his father's family was Baptist
. His paternal great-grandmother had a role in his early upbringing. Forrest later attended a racially integrated high school after winning an award, but he was a generally mediocre student except for writing. His parents divorced in 1956; his mother remarried, and the couple opened a liquor store.
Forrest attended Wendell Phillips grade school and Hyde Park High School
. He then attended Wilson Junior College for a year, and then took classes at Roosevelt University
and the University of Chicago
before dropping out, leaving to serve as a Public Information Officer in the military. After leaving the service, he returned to the University of Chicago and worked for the Catholic Interracial Council's Speakers Bureau. In 1969, he began working for Muhammad Speaks
, a Nation of Islam
newspaper. Forrest would become the last non-Muslim editor of the paper.
His first novel, There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, was published in 1973, and included an introduction from Ralph Ellison
. Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison
served as publisher's editor for There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, and his next two novels The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face. These three novels were known as the Forest County Trilogy. He cited Charlie Parker
, Dylan Thomas
, William Faulkner
, Eugene O'Neill
, Ralph Ellison
, and his parents' religions as inspiration.
He joined the creative writing and literature staff of Northwestern University
in 1973, and from 1985 to 1994, he headed their African-American Studies department. His last novel, Divine Days, was modeled on Ulysses
by James Joyce
. A novel over 1,100 pages long, Divine Days was called "the War and Peace
of African-American literature" by noted scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.
He died of cancer in Evanston, Illinois
at age 60. Meteor in the Madhouse, a series of connected novellas was published posthumously in 2001, his widow Marianne Forrest serving as literary executor.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
novelist
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
. His novels concerned mythology, history, and Chicago.
Forrest was born into a middle-class family in Chicago. His mother was Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and from New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
, while his father's family was Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
. His paternal great-grandmother had a role in his early upbringing. Forrest later attended a racially integrated high school after winning an award, but he was a generally mediocre student except for writing. His parents divorced in 1956; his mother remarried, and the couple opened a liquor store.
Forrest attended Wendell Phillips grade school and Hyde Park High School
Hyde Park Career Academy
Hyde Park Career Academy is a public 4-year high school located in the Woodlawn neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is a part of the Chicago Public Schools District 299.-Notable alumni:...
. He then attended Wilson Junior College for a year, and then took classes at Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a coeducational, private university with campuses in Chicago, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university is named in honor of both former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university's curriculum is based on...
and the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
before dropping out, leaving to serve as a Public Information Officer in the military. After leaving the service, he returned to the University of Chicago and worked for the Catholic Interracial Council's Speakers Bureau. In 1969, he began working for Muhammad Speaks
Muhammad Speaks
Muhammad Speaks now known as Muslim Journal was one of the most widely-read newspapers ever produced by an African American organization. Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad began the publication on May 1960. Its first issue bore the title Some of this Earth to Call Our Own or Else. A weekly...
, a Nation of Islam
Nation of Islam
The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...
newspaper. Forrest would become the last non-Muslim editor of the paper.
His first novel, There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, was published in 1973, and included an introduction from Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
. Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...
served as publisher's editor for There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, and his next two novels The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face. These three novels were known as the Forest County Trilogy. He cited Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, William Faulkner
William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career...
, Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
, Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, scholar and writer. He was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953...
, and his parents' religions as inspiration.
He joined the creative writing and literature staff of Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in 1973, and from 1985 to 1994, he headed their African-American Studies department. His last novel, Divine Days, was modeled on Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
by James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
. A novel over 1,100 pages long, Divine Days was called "the War and Peace
War and Peace
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...
of African-American literature" by noted scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.
He died of cancer in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
at age 60. Meteor in the Madhouse, a series of connected novellas was published posthumously in 2001, his widow Marianne Forrest serving as literary executor.
Bibiliography
- There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden (Random House, 1973)
- The Bloodworth Orphans (Random House, 1977)
- Two Wings to Veil My Face (Asphodel, 1984)
- Relocations of the Spirit: Collected Essays (Asphodel, 1994)
- Divine Days (Another Chicago Press, 1992)
- Meteor in the Madhouse (Northwestern University, 2001)