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 memoirs. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His books often use new ways of telling stories. They also focus on the experiences of African Americans.
John 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 writing, Wideman has taught literature and creative writing at different universities.
In his books, Wideman explores important topics like race, family, and justice in the United States. His own life, including his brother's time in prison, has greatly influenced his writing.
He is now a retired professor from Brown University. He lives in New York City and France.
Contents
Early Life and Education
John 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 mother's great-great-great-grandmother was enslaved in Maryland. She had children with her master's son. They moved to Pittsburgh around the time of the American Civil War. Wideman's family believes this ancestor helped settle the Homewood neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
His father's family came from South Carolina. They moved to Pittsburgh during the Great Migration. This was when many African Americans moved from the Southern states to the North.
John's father, Edgar, was a good basketball player in high school. After marrying Bette, they moved to Washington, D.C., for his job. They moved back to Pittsburgh after John was born in 1941. During World War II, his father served in the U.S. Army. After the war, he worked many jobs to support his family. This allowed them to move to a mostly white neighborhood called Shadyside. John could then attend Peabody High School.
John 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. One classmate remembered him saying he wouldn't walk alone with a white girl. He also rarely walked to class with white students.
College Years and Achievements
Wideman went to the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. He received a scholarship for his excellent grades. He was one of only a few African American students there. In his memoir, Brothers and Keepers, he wrote about feeling out of place. He felt like the environment "continually set me against them and against myself." He almost quit college, but his basketball coach stopped him.
Despite his worries, Wideman did very well. He explained his drive: "I was running away from Pittsburgh, from poverty, from blackness." He wanted to succeed, and college seemed like the right step. He knew his family back home reminded him how lucky he was.
Wideman was excellent in both academics and sports. He became a star basketball player. In his final year, he was captain of the team. He led the team in scoring and was named to the "All Ivy League" team. His team won the "Big 5" tournament, which decides the best college basketball team in Philadelphia. For his academic success, he won awards for writing. He was also invited into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.
In 1963, before graduating, Wideman won a Rhodes Scholarship. This is a very respected award to study at the University of Oxford. This achievement brought him national attention. LOOK Magazine wrote an article about him 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 playing basketball. He was captain of the Oxford University men's basketball team. One of his teammates was Bill Bradley, who later became an NBA star and 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 then 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 and asked him to send 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."
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 he used to play for.
In 1970, his second son, Jacob, was born. That same year, his second novel, Hurry Home, was published. A reviewer for The New York Times praised the novel's "dazzling display" of writing.
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. It looked at strong ideas of black nationalism from the 1960s. The story is about African American characters planning to harm a white police officer. A reviewer said Wideman "can make an ordinary scene sing the blues."
In 1974, Wideman became a full professor of English at Penn. He also received a grant to research African American literature. However, he wanted a break from his duties and from life in Philadelphia. He wanted to focus on his writing and family. He accepted a job at the University of Wyoming.
Moving to Wyoming and Literary Success
Wideman joined the University of Wyoming in 1975. His daughter, Jamila, was born that same year. Her birth was difficult. His wife had to be taken by ambulance to Denver, Colorado. Jamila was born two months early.
After his family returned to Wyoming, Wideman learned his brother Robert was a fugitive. Robert had grown up with him in Homewood, Pittsburgh. In the 1960s and 1970s, Homewood was a struggling neighborhood. In November 1975, Robert was involved in a robbery that went wrong. The victim was shot.
Robert and his friends came to Wideman's house in Laramie. Wideman let them stay one night. He later said he was naive. They then drove to Colorado and were caught. Police in Wyoming accused Wideman of helping a fugitive, but he was not charged.
Because the robbery led to a death, Robert was charged with murder. He was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole. All his appeals failed.
Wideman used his brother's experience in his writing. After eight years without publishing, he released two books in 1981. These were a story collection, Damballah, and a novel, Hiding Place. Both hinted at the events of Robert's imprisonment. He then published another novel, Sent for You Yesterday, in 1983. These three books share characters and are set in Homewood. They are often called the "Homewood trilogy."
The trilogy was highly praised. The New York Times called Wideman "one of America's premier writers of fiction." Many critics see it as his artistic breakthrough. Some even think it's his greatest work. A critic in The Nation said the trilogy showed Wideman finding a unique and confident 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 Wideman's first memoir and tells his brother Robert's story. The book uses different voices, switching between Wideman and his brother. It also explores the realities of the American criminal justice system. It shows what life in prison is like, especially for African Americans. Ishmael Reed called it "a rare triumph." Joyce Carol Oates said it belongs among the "masterpieces of American memoir."
Massachusetts, Son's Incarceration, and Many Books
In 1986, Wideman joined the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He taught in the MFA Program for Poets and Writers.
That same year, Wideman's son, Jacob, was sixteen. He was involved in the death of another teenager during a camping trip. Jacob later confessed to police. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life in prison. He could be eligible for parole after 25 years.
After this, Wideman wrote many books. A novel he wrote before his son's crime, Reuben, came out in 1987. Then came a collection of stories, Fever (1989). The next year, the novel Philadelphia Fire was published. It won awards and praise. The book was inspired by the police's 1985 bombing of the MOVE group's headquarters in Philadelphia. This event killed five children. The story is about a man trying to find a child rumored to have survived.
Philadelphia Fire was followed by 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. However, he has not written a memoir specifically about it. He often avoids discussing the case in interviews.
During this time, Wideman was a highly respected writer. He edited collections and wrote introductions for books. He also appeared on TV 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 year, another memoir, Hoop Roots, was published. It focused on Wideman's experience 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 Works
In 2004, Wideman became a professor at Brown University. That same year, he married Catherine Nedonchelle, a French journalist.
His story collection, God's Gym, was published in 2005. His tenth novel, Fanon, came out in 2008. In 2010, a collection of very short stories, Briefs, was published. It was later made into a play in 2018.
In 2014, after ten years at Brown, Wideman retired as a professor. He has since published Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File (2016). This book explores the life of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till. He also published a collection of stories, American Histories, in 2018. In 2021, a selection of his short stories from over four decades was published. It was called You Made Me Love You: Selected Stories, 1981-2018. Publishers Weekly called it "a stunning showcase."
Family Life
Wideman was married to Judith Ann Goldman, an attorney, from 1965 to 2000. They had three children. Daniel Wideman is a poet and writer. Jacob Wideman was convicted of a crime as a minor and sentenced to prison. 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 life in prison in 1975. After more than 40 years, his sentence was changed. He was released on July 2, 2019.
His Work
John Edgar Wideman's writing is studied by many scholars. The John Edgar Wideman Society was created to promote his work. His papers, including his manuscripts and letters, are kept at the 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, a single sentence can be several pages long. He sometimes uses a "stream-of-consciousness" style. This means he writes thoughts as they come, without clear order. He also often shifts perspectives suddenly.
Wideman sometimes avoids punctuation like question marks or quotation marks. He lets the reader figure out who is speaking or if it's a question. He also mixes nonfiction and fiction in the same book.
Scholars discuss whether Wideman is a modernist or postmodernist writer. However, one scholar, D. Quentin Miller, says Wideman's works "resist categorization." This means they don't easily fit into one group.
Main Themes
Wideman's work covers many topics, but some themes appear often. Most importantly, he explores race. This topic is in all his books. His fiction shows African American characters dealing with challenges 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 the government.
Another main theme is family. He sees family as a key part of community and cultural survival. But for Wideman, family can also be difficult. His writing explores how family protects you but also how you might need protection from it to find yourself. This is clear in Brothers and Keepers. In this book, Wideman and his brother explore their complicated family relationship.
Storytelling is another frequent theme. A key idea is that "all stories are true." Wideman has used this idea in many works, even as a book title. Scholar Heather Russell explains that Wideman's writing reflects African American storytelling traditions. These traditions mix myth, history, jokes, and facts. Storytelling connects the past, present, and future. It also links history, memory, and imagination.
Often in Wideman's work, storytelling focuses on trauma. This means expressing it, escaping it, or healing from it. Trauma in his work can be personal or affect all of society. Scholar Tracie Church Guzzio says Wideman's writing shows that the trauma from slavery is still felt today. It is re-experienced through racism and how history and popular culture show African Americans.
Influences on His Work
Wideman usually doesn't name his influences in interviews. But scholars and critics have pointed to writers who seem to have influenced him. These include W. E. B. Du Bois and Frantz Fanon. He also seems influenced by Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and early modernist writers. These include James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, and William Faulkner.
Honors and Awards
Athletic Honors
- Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame, inducted 1974
- University of Pennsylvania Athletics Hall of Fame, inducted 1998
Honors for His Entire Work
In 1993, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave him a fellowship. They noted that Wideman "has contributed to a new humanist perspective in American literature." He brings together personality, history, crime, and art in 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)
Selected Honors for Individual Works
- 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", published in Esquire (1987)
- PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Philadelphia Fire (1991)
- American Book Award for Philadelphia Fire (1991)
- O. Henry Award for "Weight", published in Callaloo (2000)
- O. Henry Award for "Microstories", published in Harper's Magazine (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", published in Harper's Magazine (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. Three other writers have also achieved this: Philip Roth, E. L. Doctorow, and Ha Jin.
His memoir, Brothers and Keepers, and his book, Writing to Save a Life, were both finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His memoir, Fatheralong, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Wideman's short works have been included in many important collections. These include the Norton Anthology of African American Literature and The Oxford Book of American Short Stories.
He has been a visiting professor or speaker at many universities. His books have been translated into many languages.
Images for kids
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Homewood, Pittsburgh, 1960s
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