Daniel Lewis James

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Daniel Lewis James , pseudonym Danny Santiago (born January 14, 1911 - May 18, 1988 in Monterey , Monterey County , California , United States ) was an American writer. He was best known for his novel Famous All Over Town , which is about underprivileged Hispanics in Los Angeles . He published it under his pseudonym. However, he kept his real name a secret for a long time. His agent Carl Brandt first found out about him through his friend John Gregory Dunne . Some critics called him a forger because of the use of a Latino pseudonym, others praise his contribution to literature - no matter what skin color he was.

Life

Born to a wealthy Kansas businessman, James grew up in Kansas City, Missouri , and attended Andover Academy and Yale University . He graduated with a degree in Ancient Greek.

Together with his wife Lilith, he wrote the book for Bloomer Girl , a musical that was successful on Broadway in the 1940s . However, in the 1950s he ended up on a "black list" as a communist and was forgotten as a writer for a while. For the next twenty years, he and his wife worked as volunteers in Hispanic neighborhoods.

In 1983 he published his novel Famous All Over Town . In 1984 he won the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters , but did not appear to receive it. Its publisher, Simon & Schuster, wanted to propose the novel for the Pulitzer Prize , but James refused to disclose personal information for that purpose.

controversy

Famous All Over Town is about the life of an underprivileged Mexican-American family on the East Side of Los Angeles and was originally considered a widely acclaimed contribution to Hispanic literature. Hispanic youth found the novel inspiring and took the main character as a role model. They believed the author was a young Hispanic and had a similar life story to theirs. The book became a bestseller . However, when Lewis' true identity became known, a discussion broke out about how far he could speak for Hispanics.

Works

  • Danny Santiago: Famous All Over town. (A Plume Book). Penguin, New York 1984, ISBN 0-452-25974-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Daniel Lewis James , US Social Security Death Directory (SSDI), accessed June 16, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c d e Author Abandon's pseudonym. In: Los Angeles Times. July 22, 1984, p. 18D.
  3. ↑ a b c Daniel Lewis James is dead at 77; Wrote about Los Andgeles Bario. In: The New York Times. May 21, 1988.
personal data
SURNAME James, Daniel Lewis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Santiago, Danny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1911
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 1988
Place of death Monterey , Monterey County , California , United States