FROM THE BRIARPATCH FILE: On Context, Procedure, and American Identity.

Murray, Albert.

ISBN 10: 0375421424 / ISBN 13: 9780375421426

Published by Pantheon, 2001

About this Item

First printing. A collection of "erudite, provocative, and iconoclastic essays, reviews, and interviews. . He writes about New York in the 1920s and about the beginnings of his career as a writer. . . he assesses the achievements of Duke Ellington and William Faulkner" and more in these essays. The Washington Post called him "our premier writer about jazz and blues, an incisive literary critic, and a social commentator of wide-ranging vision" and Toni Morrison stated "it is black music no less than literary criticism and historical analysis that gives his work its authenticity, its emotional vigor, and its tenacious hold on the intellect. SIGNED on the half title page. 195 pp. Fine in fine dust jacket. Seller Inventory # 89049

Bibliographic Details

Title: FROM THE BRIARPATCH FILE: On Context, ...

Publisher: Pantheon

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: FINE

Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

In From the Briarpatch File—a gathering of erudite, provocative, and iconoclastic essays, reviews, and interviews—Albert Murray approaches contemporary America through its artistic expressions of itself and through the inventiveness of his own thinking and experience. He writes about New York in the 1920s and about the beginnings of his career as a writer. He gives us profound assessments of the achievements of Duke Ellington and William Faulkner. He outlines the responsibilities of the black educated elite and discusses the near-tragic, near-comic essence of the blues. His subject is no less than the life of America today; the clarity and the singularity of his vision, thought, and language are no less than stunning.

From the Back Cover:

“Albert Murray is as close to a classic man of letters as one might find in this country today.”
—Boston Globe

“Murray’s perceptions are firmly based in the blues idiom, and it is black music no less than literary criticism and historical analysis that gives his work its authenticity, its emotional vigor, and its tenacious hold on the intellect.”
—Toni Morrison

“Albert Murray is one of the best-kept secrets in contemporary American literature. He is our premier writer about jazz and blues, an incisive literary critic, and a social commentator of wide-ranging vision.”
—Washington Post Book World

“Murray is a genial, fluent, jazzy raconteur whose idiomatic voice is as finely tuned as a concert-ready Steinway piano.”
—The New York Times