John Edgar Wideman facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Edgar Wideman
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Wideman at the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards in 2010
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| Born | June 14, 1941 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Occupation | Author, Professor (emeritus) |
| Alma mater | |
| Period | 1967–present |
| Notable works | Brothers and Keepers (1984) |
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John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American writer. He writes novels, short stories, and essays. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for its unique style and for focusing on the experiences of African Americans.
John Edgar Wideman grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was a great student and athlete at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1963, he became the second African American to win a Rhodes Scholarship. This allowed him to study at the University of Oxford in England. Besides being a writer, Wideman has also been a professor. He taught literature and creative writing at different universities.
In his books, Wideman explores important topics. These include race, family, difficult experiences, and justice in the United States. His own life, including challenges faced by his family members, has greatly influenced his work.
He is now a professor emeritus (a retired professor who keeps his title) at Brown University. He lives in New York City and France.
Contents
Early Life and Education
John Edgar Wideman was born on June 14, 1941. He was born in Washington, D.C.. He was the oldest of five children. His parents were Edgar and Bette Wideman.
Wideman's family history goes back to the time of slavery in America. His great-great-great-grandmother was enslaved in Maryland. She moved to Pittsburgh around the time of the American Civil War. She settled in the area that became the Homewood neighborhood. On his father's side, his ancestors came from South Carolina. Many African Americans moved north in the early 1900s. This was part of the Great Migration. Wideman's paternal grandfather moved to Pittsburgh during this time.
Wideman's father, Edgar, played basketball in high school. He worked for the U.S. Government Printing Office. After John was born, the family moved back to Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood. During World War II, his father served in the U.S. Army. After the war, he worked many jobs to support his family. The family later moved to Shadyside. This allowed Wideman to attend Peabody High School.
Wideman was a very smart student from a young age. In high school, he was a star basketball player. He was also student body president and the top student in his class. He was careful around white students. A classmate remembered him saying he wouldn't walk alone with a white girl. He also seldom walked with white students between classes.
College Years
Wideman went to the University of Pennsylvania. He received a scholarship for his excellent grades. He was one of the few African American students there in 1959. In his book Brothers and Keepers, he wrote about a difficult moment. A white student claimed to know more about blues music than he did. His friend did not support him. This made him feel alone. He felt like the environment was "continually set me against them and against myself." He almost quit college. But his basketball coach stopped him at the bus station.
He wrote to his brother about why he wanted to leave. He said he was "running away from Pittsburgh, from poverty, from blackness." He felt college was a way to get ahead. He saw it as a necessary step to make something of himself. He felt his journey away from home started with good grades and good English.
Wideman did very well in college. He was a star basketball player. In his senior year, he was captain of the team. He led the team in scoring. He was named to the "All Ivy League" team. His team won the "Big 5" tournament in Philadelphia. This tournament decides the best college basketball team in the city. For his academic success, he won awards for writing. He was also invited into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
In 1963, Wideman won a Rhodes Scholarship. This is a very special award. It allowed him to study at the University of Oxford. He was only the second African American to win it. This brought him national attention. He was featured in Look magazine. The article was called "The Astonishing John Wideman." It said he had won so many honors that he couldn't even list them all.
In the fall of 1963, Wideman moved to England. He studied 18th-century British fiction at Oxford. He also continued to play basketball. He was captain of the Oxford University men's basketball team. One of his teammates was Bill Bradley. Bradley later became an NBA All-Star and a U.S. Senator. Their team won championships in 1965 and 1966.
In 1965, Wideman married Judith Goldman. She was a white Jewish woman he met at Penn. The next year, Wideman earned his degree from Oxford. He returned to the U.S. He spent a year at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. There, he studied with famous writers like Kurt Vonnegut.
Writing and Teaching Career
Early Novels and Philadelphia Life
In 1967, Wideman became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. That summer, his first novel, A Glance Away, was published. His editor had seen his profile in Look magazine. He asked Wideman to send him his writing. The novel received good reviews. A reviewer in The New York Times Book Review called him "a novelist of high seriousness and depth." They said his first book was "powerfully inventive."
In 1968, Wideman taught Penn's first classes in African-American literature. His first son, Daniel, was born that year. Wideman also became an assistant coach for the men's basketball team.
In 1970, his second son, Jacob, was born. His second novel, Hurry Home, was also published. A reviewer for The New York Times praised the novel's "dazzling display" of writing. They noted Wideman's "formidable command of the techniques of fiction."
Wideman helped create a program in African American Studies at Penn. He directed the program from 1971 to 1973. In 1972, he stopped coaching basketball.
In 1973, his third novel, The Lynchers, was published. This book looked at strong ideas about black identity that appeared in the 1960s. It showed African American characters planning to harm a white police officer. Anatole Broyard wrote in The New York Times that Wideman "can make an ordinary scene sing the blues like nobody's business."
In 1974, Wideman became a full professor of English at Penn. He received a grant to research African-American literature. But he wanted a break from his duties and from Philadelphia. He wanted to focus on his writing and family. He accepted a job at the University of Wyoming.
Wyoming, Family Challenges, and Literary Success
Wideman joined the University of Wyoming in 1975. That same year, his daughter, Jamila, was born. Her birth was difficult. His wife, Judith, had to be taken to Denver, Colorado. Jamila was born two months early.
After his family returned to Wyoming, Wideman learned something upsetting. His brother Robert, who he grew up with, was in trouble. Robert had been involved in a crime in Pittsburgh in 1975. This crime led to someone's death. Robert and others fled to Wyoming. Wideman let them stay at his house for a night. He later said he did this out of innocence. Robert and his friends were caught in Colorado. Police in Wyoming questioned Wideman. But he was not charged with anything.
Under Pennsylvania law, because the crime resulted in a death, Robert faced serious charges. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. His appeals were not successful.
Wideman used his brother's experience in his writing. After not publishing for eight years, he released two books in 1981. These were a story collection, Damballah, and a novel, Hiding Place. Both books hinted at the events that led to Robert's imprisonment. He then published another novel, Sent for You Yesterday, in 1983. These three books are often called the "Homewood trilogy." They share characters and are set in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood.
The trilogy was highly praised. The New York Times called Wideman "one of America's premier writers of fiction." Many critics see this trilogy as his artistic breakthrough. Some even think it's his greatest work. Critic Jesse McCarthy said the trilogy showed Wideman "achieving a distinctive voice." Some stories from Damballah are often included in literature collections.
In 1984, Wideman published Brothers and Keepers. This book became his most popular. It is a memoir about his brother Robert's story. The book uses different voices, switching between Wideman and his brother. It also explores the realities of the American justice system and life in prison. Especially for African Americans. Ishmael Reed called it "a rare triumph." Joyce Carol Oates said it was among the "masterpieces of American memoir."
Massachusetts, More Family Challenges, and Productive Period
In 1986, Wideman joined the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He taught in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers.
In the same year, his son, Jacob, who was sixteen, was involved in a tragic incident. A roommate died during a camping trip in Arizona. Jacob left the state. His parents urged him to turn himself in. He later confessed to the police. He pleaded guilty to a serious charge. He was sentenced to life in prison, with a chance for parole after 25 years. A year after the incident, Wideman wrote a letter to the victim's family.
Wideman then entered a very productive period in his career. A novel written before Jacob's crime, Reuben, came out in 1987. This was followed by a collection of stories, Fever (1989). The next year, the novel Philadelphia Fire was published. It received great reviews and awards. This book was inspired by the 1985 bombing of a black liberation group's headquarters in Philadelphia. The story is about a man trying to find a child rumored to have survived the tragedy.
After Philadelphia Fire, he published more books. These included a story collection, The Stories of John Edgar Wideman (1992). He also wrote a memoir, Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society (1994). Two more novels, The Cattle Killing (1996) and Two Cities (1998), followed. Wideman wrote about his son's story in some of these books. But he has not written a full memoir about it. He often avoids discussing the case in interviews.
During this time, Wideman was a highly respected writer. He edited books and wrote introductions. He appeared in the media to talk about issues affecting African Americans. His daughter, Jamila, became a star basketball player. In 1997, she was a top pick in the first Women's National Basketball Association draft. This brought more media attention, including a cover story in Sports Illustrated.
In 2000, Wideman and his wife, Judith, divorced.
In 2001, the University of Massachusetts named Wideman a Distinguished Professor. That same year, another memoir, Hoop Roots, was published. It focused on his experiences with basketball. A review called it "one of the best books ever written about the sport." He then published a nonfiction book about Martinique called The Island: Martinique (2003).
Brown University and Recent Work
In 2004, Wideman became a professor at Brown University. In the same year, he married Catherine Nedonchelle, a French journalist.
The next year, his story collection, God's Gym, was published. His tenth novel, Fanon, came out in 2008. In 2010, a collection of very short stories, Briefs, was published. It was later adapted into a play in Los Angeles.
In 2014, after ten years at Brown, Wideman became an emeritus professor. He had taught for nearly 50 years. Since then, he has published a book that mixes fiction and nonfiction. It explores the life of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till. This book is called Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File (2016). He published a collection of stories, American Histories, in 2018. In 2021, a selection of his short stories was published. It was called You Made Me Love You: Selected Stories, 1981-2018. Publishers Weekly called it "a stunning showcase." They said it confirmed Wideman's important place in American literature.
Family Life
Wideman was married to Judith Ann Goldman, a lawyer, from 1965 until their divorce in 2000. They had three children:
- Daniel Wideman is a poet, playwright, and business executive.
- Jacob Wideman was involved in a serious incident as a teenager. He was sentenced to prison in Arizona.
- Jamila Wideman is a lawyer and executive at the National Basketball Association. She also played professional basketball.
In 2004, Wideman married French journalist Catherine Nedonchelle. He lives in France and New York City.
Wideman's brother, Robert, was sentenced to prison in 1975. After more than 40 years, his sentence was changed. He was released on July 2, 2019.
His Writing Style and Themes
Wideman's work is studied by many scholars. The John Edgar Wideman Society was formed to promote his work. His papers, including his writings and letters, are kept at Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Writing Style
Wideman's writing is known for being complex and experimental. It often mixes traditional English with African-American Vernacular English. In some books, he uses short sentences. In others, he writes very long sentences that go on for pages. He sometimes uses a style called stream-of-consciousness. This means he writes thoughts as they come to mind. He also shifts perspectives suddenly. He often doesn't use question marks or quotation marks. Instead, he relies on the reader to understand the meaning from the context. Sometimes, he mixes real facts with made-up stories in the same book.
Scholars discuss if Wideman is a modernist or a postmodernist writer. But scholar D. Quentin Miller says Wideman's works "resist categorization." This means they don't easily fit into one group.
Main Themes
Wideman's writing explores many different ideas. But some common themes appear often.
- Race: This is a very important topic in all his books. His stories show African American characters dealing with challenges. They often feel like outsiders in a mostly white society. His work also shows how race and racism are created and seen in society. This includes how people talk, how they interact, and how they deal with government.
- Family: Family is another main focus. He sees family as a key part of community and survival. But family can also be complicated. His writing explores how family protects people. It also shows how people sometimes need to be protected from family to find themselves. This is clear in Brothers and Keepers. In that book, he and his brother explore their complex family bond.
- Storytelling: The idea that "all stories are true" is very important to Wideman. He has used this idea in many works. It was even the title of one of his story collections. Scholar Heather Russell explains that Wideman's writing reflects African American storytelling traditions. These traditions mix myths, history, parables, and facts. Storytelling helps connect the past, present, and future. It also links history, memory, and imagination.
- Trauma: Often, storytelling in Wideman's work is about dealing with difficult experiences. It's about expressing them, escaping them, or healing from them. Trauma can affect individuals or entire societies. Scholar Tracie Church Guzzio says Wideman's writing shows that the pain from slavery is still felt today. It is re-experienced through ongoing racism. It is also seen in how history, literature, and popular culture show things.
Influences
Wideman usually doesn't name his influences in interviews. But scholars and critics have pointed to writers and thinkers who seem to have inspired him. These include W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. Other influences are Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin. In his early work, he was also influenced by James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and William Faulkner.
Awards and Honors
Athletic Honors
- Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame, inducted 1974
- University of Pennsylvania Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted 1998
Honors for His Overall Work
In 1993, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave him a special fellowship. They noted that Wideman "has contributed to a new humanist perspective in American literature." He blended personality, history, crime, and art into his work. Honors for his entire body of work include:
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Pennsylvania (1986)
- John Dos Passos Prize for Literature (1986)
- Lannan Literary Award in Fiction (1991)
- Honorary Doctorate, Rutgers University (1991)
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Elected Member (1992)
- St. Botolph Club Foundation Distinguished Artist Award (1992)
- MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1993)
- Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writers' Award (1998)
- Rea Award for the Short Story (1998)
- Honorary Doctorate, Colby College (1998)
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Bern (1998)
- Honorary Doctorate, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York (1999)
- New England Book Award for Literary Excellence (2001)
- Honorary Doctorate, Columbia College Chicago (2003)
- Langston Hughes Medal (2004)
- American Philosophical Society, Elected Member (2005)
- Katherine Anne Porter Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2008)
- Honorary Doctorate, State University of New York at New Paltz (2010)
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award (2011)
- American Academy of Arts and Letters, Elected Member (2016)
- Honorary Doctorate, Duquesne University (2017)
- Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement (2018)
- Stephen E. Henderson Award for Outstanding Achievement (2019)
- PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story (2019)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature (2021)
Honors for Specific Books
- American Library Association Notable Books List for Sent for You Yesterday (1984)
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Sent for You Yesterday (1984)
- American Library Association Notable Books List for Brothers and Keepers (1985)
- National Magazine Award for "Doc's Story" (1987)
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Philadelphia Fire (1991)
- American Book Award for Philadelphia Fire (1991)
- James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction for The Cattle Killing (1997)
- O. Henry Award for "Weight" (2000)
- O. Henry Award for "Microstories" (2010)
- Prix Femina Étranger for Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File (2017)
- PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File (2017)
- O. Henry Award for "Maps and Ledgers" (2019)
- The Wall Street Journal "10 Best Books of 2021" for Look for Me and I'll Be Gone (2021)
Wideman won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. He was the first writer to do so. Only three other writers have achieved this since.
His memoir, Brothers and Keepers, and his book, Writing to Save a Life, were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His memoir, Fatheralong, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Wideman's short stories have been included in many important collections. These include the Norton Anthology of African American Literature.
He has been a visiting professor or speaker at many universities. His work has been translated into many languages around the world.
Images for kids
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Homewood, Pittsburgh, 1960s
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