Writing to Save a Life (Canons)

by JohnEdgarWideman (Author), John Edgar Wideman (Author)

New
Paperback
2018
$10.65

When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett's father, Louis, had also been killed - court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black. In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America - illuminating, humane and profound.

Synopsis

When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett's father, Louis, had also been killed - court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black. In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America - illuminating, humane and profound.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: Main - Canons
Publisher: Canongate Canons
Published: 03 May 2018
ISBN 10: 178689372X
ISBN 13: 9781786893727

Media Reviews

At times melancholy, at others raw and rippling with rage, Wideman masterfully weaves together memory, history and archival documents . . . Haunting, provocative, and inspired * * Washington Post * *
A mercurial coupling of fact and fiction from a profound writer -- RICHARD FORD
A quietly harrowing postscript to the tragedy of Emmett Till . . . A searching account * * New York Times Book Review * *
A great American writer -- JOY WILLIAMS
A genre-defying mix of history, biography, and memoir * * Philadelphia Inquirer * *
Haunting * * New York Magazine * *
A book seething with the passion and sense of outrage behind the Black Lives Matter movement that also traces specific roots of the movement's genealogy * * Kirkus Reviews * *

Author Bio

John Edgar Wideman's books include American Histories, Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots and Sent for You Yesterday. He is a MacArthur Fellow and has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. In 2017, he won the the Prix Femina Etranger for Writing to Save a Life. He divides his time between New York and France.