Herbert Simmons
Herbert Simmons (born 1930 or 1931 in St. Louis , Missouri ) is an American writer .
Life
Simmons attended Lincoln University in Missouri, where he studied journalism. He suspended his studies, did his military service and graduated from Washington University in 1958 with a BA in English Composition .
His first novel Corner Boy was published in 1957 and was awarded a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship . In the same year the book was published in Great Britain. With the publication of the paperback edition in 1958, the book achieved high sales figures for years. His second novel Man Walking on Eggshells was published in 1962 and was the first volume in a trilogy entitled Destined to Free . The two other planned volumes, titled Tough Country and The Land of Nod , however, never appeared and it is not known whether Simmons ever completed them.
In 1965, after the civil war-like unrest, the so-called Watts uprising , the Watts Writers Workshop was founded in Los Angeles , in which Simmons was significantly involved. He later taught at California State University, Northridge, and retired in the mid-1990s. It is not known where he currently lives. He has not had any new publications since 1962, while his two novels have been reprinted repeatedly.
plant
The two novels by Simmons provide a vivid picture of the black ghettos before and during the civil rights movement. The main characters are young men who move between music and the existence of a crook. From the plot, Simmons moves between naturalism and hardboiled detective crime novels. In terms of rhythms of speech and prose form, Simmon's novels have often been compared to bebop , cool jazz and free jazz . The language and form of Man Walking on Eggshells in particular is highly rhythmic and largely follows the compositional and improvisational principles of jazz.
Works
- Corner boy . Houghton Mifflin, 1957
- Man walking on eggshells . Houghton Mifflin, 1962 (German dance on raw eggs , 1999)
Web links
- Literature by and about Herbert Simmons in the catalog of the German National Library
- Short biography and reviews of works by Herbert Simmons at perlentaucher.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Herbert Simmons, 1930– , books.google.de, accessed on April 18, 2020 (the DNB also names 1930 as the year of birth)
- ^ Herbert Simmons: Corner Boy introduction in the edition of the Payback Press, Edinburgh 1996, pp. VII f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Simmons, Herbert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1930 or 1931 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Louis , Missouri |