Writing to Save a Life

John Edgar Wideman

From Shelf: Black Stories and Black History

The new international prizewinning non-fiction from John Edgar Wideman, one of the standout black American writers of the modern age and winner of the 2017 Prix Femina Etranger

When Emmett Till was murdered aged fourteen for allegedly whistling at a white woman, photographs of his destroyed face became a flashpoint in the civil rights movement. A decade earlier Emmett's father, Louis, had also been killed - court-martialled and hanged. Though the circumstances could hardly have been more different, behind both deaths stood the same crime, of being black.In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman, born the same year as Emmett Till, investigates the tragic fates of father and son. Mixing research, memoir and imagination, this book is an essential commentary on racism in America - illuminating, humane and profound.

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