William Gardner Smith (1927–1974) was born and raised in a black working-class neighborhood of South Philadelphia, where his youth was punctuated by brutal episodes of racist violence: at fourteen, he was stripped and beaten by the police, and at nineteen was assaulted by a group of white sailors. A star student and passionate reader, Smith began reporting for the black-owned Pittsburgh Courier as a high school senior and took a job at the paper after graduating at the age of sixteen. In 1946, he was drafted into the army and stationed in Germany; there he completed his first novel, which would be published two years later as Last of the Conquerors. Returning to the States, Smith continued to contribute to the Courier, studied at Temple University, led demonstrations against police brutality, and pursued an interest in Marxism that soon attracted the attention of the FBI. In 1950 he published his second novel, Anger at Innocence. Feeling stifled by racism and McCarthyism, Smith left for Paris, where he worked for Agence France Presse and became acquainted with Richard Wright and Chester Himes, and published the novels, South Street and The Stone Face. Invited to help launch the first television station in Ghana, Smith moved in 1964, but after a military coup brought down the government of Kwame Nkrumah, the family returned to Paris. In 1967, he revisited the United States to write his final book, Return to Black America, published in 1970. He married three times, had three children, and he died of cancer in 1974 in a suburb of Paris.
William Gardner Smith (1927–1974) was born and raised in a black working-class neighborhood of South Philadelphia, where his youth was punctuated by brutal episodes of racist violence: at fourteen, he was stripped and beaten by the police, and at nineteen was assaulted by a group of white sailors. A star student and passionate reader, Smith began reporting for the black-owned Pittsburgh Courier as a high school senior and took a job at the paper after graduating at the age of sixteen. In 1946, he was drafted into the army and stationed in Germany; there he completed his first novel, which would be published two years later as Last of the Conquerors. Returning to the States, Smith continued to contribute to the Courier, studied at Temple University, led demonstrations against police brutality, and pursued an interest in Marxism that soon attracted the attention of the FBI. In 1950 he published his second novel, Anger at Innocence. Feeling stifled by racism and McCarthyism, Smith left for Paris, where he worked for Agence France Presse and became acquainted with Richard Wright and Chester Himes, and published the novels, South Street and The Stone Face. Invited to help launch the first television station in Ghana, Smith moved in 1964, but after a military coup brought down the government of Kwame Nkrumah, the family returned to Paris. In 1967, he revisited the United States to write his final book, Return to Black America, published in 1970. He married three times, had three children, and he died of cancer in 1974 in a suburb of Paris.
Showing the single result
Simeon Brown is an African American journalist who moves to Paris after a violent encounter with white sailors. In Paris, he meets new friends and falls in love with a Polish actress who is a concentration camp survivor. However, he becomes aware that Paris is not a racial utopia as he witnesses Algerians being oppressed by the French government. Through his friendship with Ahmed, an Algerian radical, Simeon is forced to consider where his loyalties lie.
