Albert Murray and the Aesthetic Imagination of a Nation (Pebble Hill)

This is the first book-length study of the writings, work, and life of Renaissance man and Alabama native Albert Murray. The collection consists of essays and interviews written by prominent scholars of African American literature, jazz, and Albert Murray that illustrate Murray's place as a central figure in African American arts and letters and as an American cultural pioneer."A very important contribution to the field of African American literary and cultural studies.... It present[s] the many facets of Murray's intellectual odyssey...[illuminating his] contribution to our national discussion on race, as well as his germinal insights on music, visual art, and literature." ---Herman Beavers, author of Wrestling Angels into Song: The Fictions of Ernest J. Gaines and James Alan McPherson"I appreciated the way the voices `sound' in the volume....It has the feeling of an ensemble---or, to use one of Mr. Murray's metaphors, a jazz band, with Murray's voice `taking the break' at key points. The melody is Murray, and there are countless riffs on his work." ---Carolyn J. Medine, coeditor of Teaching African American Religions