Gerald Lyn Early (born April 21, 1952) is an American

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

ist and

American culture The culture of the United States encompasses various social behaviors, institutions, and Social norm, norms, including forms of Languages of the United States, speech, American literature, literature, Music of the United States, music, Visual a ...

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

. He is currently the Merle Kling

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

of Modern letters, of English,

African studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's History of Africa, history (pre-colonial, Colonisation of Af ...

, African-American studies, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He also served as a consultant on Ken Burns'

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

s ''

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

'', ''

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

'', '' Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson'', '' The War'', and ''

Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and social activist. A global cultural icon, widely known by the nickname "The Greatest", he is often regarded as the gr ...

''. He is a regular commentator on NPR's '' Fresh Air''. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of ''The Best American Essays'' series. He writes on topics as diverse as

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

, the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

African-American culture African-American culture, also known as Black American culture or Black culture in American English, refers to the cultural expressions of African Americans, either as part of or distinct from mainstream American culture. African-American/Bl ...

, Afro-American

autobiography 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 ...

non-fiction Non-fiction (or nonfiction) is any document or content (media), media content that attempts, in good faith, to convey information only about the real life, real world, rather than being grounded in imagination. Non-fiction typically aims to pre ...

prose Prose is language that follows the natural flow or rhythm of speech, ordinary grammatical structures, or, in writing, typical conventions and formatting. Thus, prose ranges from informal speaking to formal academic writing. Prose differs most n ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

, prizefighting,

Motown Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

and Sammy Davis Jr. In 2024, he was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

Background and education

Early was born on April 21, 1952, in Philadelphia, the 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 raise 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 Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1974. During Early's undergraduate years, he was introduced to the writings of

Amiri Baraka Amiri Baraka (born Everett Leroy Jones; October 7, 1934 – January 9, 2014), previously known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amear Baraka, was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous b ...

and later credited the poet and

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

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. degree, Early remained in 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 Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he eventually earned a doctorate in English literature in 1982. Early landed his first teaching job as an assistant professor of black studies in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in 1982. He steadily rose 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.

Awards and honors

Early won a Whiting Award in 1988 for creative nonfiction. For his essay collection ''The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture'', he won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award. He has been nominated twice for the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for Best Album Notes. Once in 2001, for ''Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story'', and again in 2002 for ''Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From The Harlem Renaissance''. On September 5, 2007, Early was honored by Washington University with the unveiling of a portrait painted by Jamie Adams that hangs in the Journals Reading Room of the university's Olin Library. In 2013, Early was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame. On February 19, 2022, the Chicago suburb of Park Forest rededicated Early Street, initially named for the Confederate general, in Gerald Early's honor in an effort to celebrate the historic diversity of the village.

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) (

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

) *''One Nation Under a Groove: Motown & American Culture'' (1994) (

music history Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is a highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies music from a historical point of view. In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of ...

) *''How the War in the Streets Is Won: Poems on the Quest of Love and Faith'' (Time Being Books, 1995) (poetry) *''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 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)

References

External links

Washington University Faculty Page

* ttps://ethaniverson.com/interviews/interview-with-gerald-early/ DTM interviewbr>Profile at The Whiting Foundation
* http://www.laduenews.com/society/persons-of-interest/persons-of-interest-gerald-early-the-professor-from-south-philly/article_3cf1d44b-93ea-5017-a110-7dc516fdb184.html * {{DEFAULTSORT:Early, Gerald 1952 births 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics African-American poets American male poets American music critics Black studies scholars Cornell University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Washington University in St. Louis faculty Writers from Philadelphia Living people Members of the American Philosophical Society National Book Critics Circle Award winners