Charles R. Johnson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Charles R. Johnson
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Johnson in 2013
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| Born | April 23, 1948 Evanston, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Education | Southern Illinois University (BS, MA) Stony Brook University (PhD) |
Charles Richard Johnson (born April 23, 1948) is an American writer, teacher, and artist. He writes novels, short stories, and essays. His works often explore big ideas and questions about life. Johnson has written about the experiences of Black Americans in books like Dreamer and Middle Passage. He was born in 1948 in Evanston, Illinois. He spent most of his career teaching at the University of Washington in Seattle.
The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English says that Johnson's books mix real history with stories that teach lessons. They also sometimes add imaginative or fantastic parts to show the experiences of African Americans.
Contents
Charles R. Johnson's Career
Early Days as a Cartoonist
Charles Johnson first became well-known in the 1960s as a political cartoonist and illustrator. When he was 15, he learned from a cartoonist named Lawrence Lariar. After two years of lessons, Johnson started publishing his art in 1965. He drew pictures for a magic company in Chicago. He also published three stories in his high school newspaper. His cartoons won awards in 1966 from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.
Johnson kept drawing and publishing a lot while he was a journalism student at Southern Illinois University. This university later gave him an important award in 1977 for his ideas. They also gave him an honorary degree in 1995.
As a cartoonist from 1965 to 1972, Johnson created hundreds of drawings and comic strips. He drew for his student paper, The Daily Egyptian, and for The Southern Illinoisan. He also drew for national African-American magazines like Black World and Ebony. He even wrote comic book stories for Charlton Comics. Johnson also taught cartooning at SIU's "Free School."
In 1970, Johnson created and hosted a TV show called Charlie's Pad on WSIU-TV. This was an early PBS show that taught people how to draw. It had 52 lessons, each 15 minutes long. These lessons were based on what he learned from Lawrence Lariar.
College and First Novels
Johnson earned his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1971. He then got his master's degree in philosophy in 1973 from Southern Illinois University. Later, he earned his PhD in philosophy from Stony Brook University in 1988. His PhD paper, Being and Race: Black Writing Since 1970, was published as a book. It explored African-American literature using deep philosophical ideas.
Between 1970 and 1972, Johnson wrote six early novels that were not published. He called these his "apprentice novels." One of them was an early version of Middle Passage. His seventh novel, Faith and the Good Thing, was his first philosophical novel. He wrote it in nine months with help from his mentor, John Gardner. This book was published in 1974. Johnson said his goal was to add to the tradition of "African-American philosophical fiction." This means stories by Black American writers that make you think deeply about life. He saw writers like Jean Toomer and Ralph Ellison as early examples of this style.
Teaching and Writing at University of Washington
In 1976, Johnson began teaching at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW). He quickly became a permanent professor there. After his second novel, Oxherding Tale (1982), was published, he became a full professor. This novel was a story about slavery that also used ideas from Asian philosophies. It referred to the classic 10 Oxherding Pictures, an old Asian artwork with deep meanings.
Johnson has studied Buddhism and Eastern thought for a long time. He even started learning Sanskrit in 1998. In 2007, he took formal vows in the Soto Zen tradition of Buddhism. He writes regularly for Buddhist magazines like Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Shambhala Sun. A collection of his writings on Buddhism and writing was published in 2003, called Turning the Wheel. A second collection, Taming the Ox, came out in 2014.
In 1986, Johnson's first collection of short stories, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, was a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. A survey at UCLA even named him one of the ten best short story writers in America. His other story collections include Soulcatcher and Other Stories (2001). These stories were written to bring history to life for the PBS series Africans in America. Two of his stories were even read aloud by actors for a radio show called "Selected Shorts."
Johnson has traveled to many countries, including Germany, Japan, and Spain, to give lectures for the U.S. Information Agency.
For 20 years, Johnson wrote about 20 screenplays and teleplays for TV and movies. One of his first was Charlie Smith and the Fritter Tree (1978). This was about Charlie Smith, who was 136 years old and the oldest living American at the time. Johnson also helped write Booker (1985), a story about the childhood of Booker T. Washington. This script won a Writers Guild Award for being the best children's TV show script in 1985.
Johnson also reviewed over 50 books for newspapers like The New York Times Book Review and The Wall Street Journal. For 20 years, he was the fiction editor for the Seattle Review. He has also been a judge for major literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He even led the fiction panel for the National Book Award twice.
Johnson has been involved in martial arts since 1967. Since 1981, he has practiced and sometimes taught Choy Li Fut kung-fu.
Charles Johnson retired in 2009 from his teaching position at the University of Washington.
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