Vincent O. Carter was an African American writer who for most of his adult life lived in

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

, Switzerland. His best-known work is the autobiographical ''The Bern Book: A Record of a Voyage of the Mind''.

Life

Vincent O.Carter was born in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, where he grew up in poverty. As a young man he was drafted into the US Army and was deployed in France. After the war, the G. I. Bill gave him the opportunity to study at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and he also spent a year at

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

in Detroit, while, at the same time, working as a cook for the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad is a Railroad classes, Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United Stat ...

and for a Detroit auto manufacturer. After finishing his degree, he returned to Europe where, in the mid-1950s, and after extended stays in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

and

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, he finally settled down in the Swiss de facto capital Bern. There he wrote most of his works, painted and worked as an English teacher. He died in Bern on January 23, 1983. He was

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

awarded an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from Lincoln University, PA in 2025.

Writing

''The Bern Book'', completed in 1957, yet only published in the US in 1973 under the title ''The Bern Book: A Record of a Voyage of the Mind'' is a sharply observed, autobiographical narrative describing the city, its inhabitants and their reaction to a black foreigner living among them. A German translation was published in Switzerland in 2021. He is also the author of ''Such Sweet Thunder'', which narrates the story of a boy growing up in the segregated Kansas City during the 1920s and 1930s. This book, while completed in 1963, was only published in 2003.Review of Such Sweet Thunder in Publishers Weekly
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Works

* ''The Bern Book. A Record of a Voyage of the Mind''. John Day Co., New York 1973, ISBN 0381982378 ** Reissued as ''The Bern Book'' by the

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

, 2020, ISBN 9781628973167 ** ''Meine weisse Stadt und ich. Das Bernbuch''. Translated into German by Pociao and Roberto de Hollanda. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2021, ISBN 9783039260096 * ''Such Sweet Thunder.'' Steerforth Press, South Royalton 2003, ISBN 9781586420581

Literature

Darryl Pinckney Darryl Pinckney (born 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American novelist, playwright, and essayist. Early life Pinckney grew up in a middle-class African-American family in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended local public schools. He wa ...

: ''Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature''. Basic Civitas Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0465057608.

External links

Vincent O. Carter
entry in the ''literapedia bern''
The Kansas City Vincent O. Carter Project

Vincent O. Carter at Dalkey Archive Press

(German)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Vincent O. 1924 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers African-American novelists African-American short story writers American expatriates in Switzerland American male novelists American male short story writers Writers from Missouri 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century African-American writers