Charles Perry (1924–1969) was an

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

author whose only published novel was '' Portrait of a Young Man Drowning''. He was born in

Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...

, but moved to

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

when he was still in

grade school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. During the 1940s, he was a co-star of the hit radio series ''New World A-Coming''.

''Portrait of a Young Man''

''Portrait of a Young Man Drowning'' draws heavily on Perry's first hand research of gangsters and juvenile delinquents in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. An homage to

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

's '' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'', the novel is written in the first person and tells the story of Harold. He is a young man who gets sucked into Brooklyn's underworld scene, while living with an overbearing mother. The novel was considered ground-breaking when it was first published in 1962 because it was one of the first novels written in the first person by a black author with a white

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

. Perry soon began work on a

semi-autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

account of the death of his 11-year-old son Charles Jr., who died falling from a tree onto a rod iron fence entitled ''I Wake Up Screaming''. ''Portrait of a Young Man Drowning'' was made into a film entitled Six Ways to Sunday in 1997. Alongside his writing career, Perry also appeared in over 30 films mainly in minor roles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Perry, Charles 20th-century American novelists African-American novelists American male novelists 1969 deaths 1924 births Deaths from cancer in California Writers from Savannah, Georgia Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American male writers American male radio actors 20th-century African-American writers African-American male writers