DRIVING THE KING

Howard, Ravi

ISBN 10: 006052961X / ISBN 13: 9780060529611

Published by Harper, New York, 2015

About this Item

First Edition / First Printing. Hardcover. Signed by author on the title page. First printing with full number line on copyright page. Fictional memoir set in postwar Alabama about Nat King Cole and his driver. Starred review by Publisher's Weekly. From the dust jacket flap: ". reminds us that no black man, no matter how gifted or famous, could escape the racial tensions threatening to divide the country." PLEASE NOTE that all our First Editions are also First Printings, unless we specifically note otherwise. All our dust jackets are protected in clear mylar covers. Fine in fine dj with some very faint shelf wear.

Seller Inventory # 50289

Bibliographic Details

• Title: DRIVING THE KING
• Publisher: Harper, New York
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 006052961X
• ISBN 13: 9780060529611
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition / First Printing.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fiction & Literature
  • African American

About this title

Synopsis

A daring and brilliant novel that explores race and class in 1950s America, witnessed through the experiences of Nat King Cole and his driver, Nat Weary.

The war is over, the soldiers are returning, and Nat King Cole is back in his hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, for a rare performance. His childhood friend, Nat Weary, plans to propose to his sweetheart, and the singer will honor their moment with a special song. While the world has changed, segregated Jim Crow Montgomery remains the same. When a white man attacks Cole with a pipe, Weary leaps from the audience to defend him—an act that will lead to a ten-year prison sentence.

But the singer will not forget his friend and the sacrifice he made. Six months before Weary is released, he receives a remarkable offer: will he be Nat King Cole’s driver and bodyguard in L.A.? It is the promise of a new life removed from the terror, violence, and degradation of Jim Crow Alabama.

Weary discovers that, while Los Angeles is far different from the Deep South, it a place of discrimination, mistrust, and intolerance where a black man—even one as talented and popular as Nat King Cole—is not wholly welcome.

An indelible portrait of prejudice and promise, friendship and loyalty, Driving the King is a daring look at race and class in pre-Civil Rights America, played out in the lives of two remarkable men.

About the Author

Ravi Howard won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence for his novel Like Trees, Walking. He was also a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award. He has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the New Jersey Council on the Arts. As a sports producer with NFL Films, he won an Emmy for his work on Inside the NFL.