E. Lynn Harris
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|
E. Lynn Harris | |
|---|---|
| Born | Everette Lynn Jeter June 20, 1955 Flint, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | July 23, 2009 (aged 54) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Author |
| Alma mater | University of Arkansas |
E. Lynn Harris (born Everette Lynn Jeter; June 20, 1955 – July 23, 2009) was an American author.[1] Openly gay, he was best known for his depictions of African-American men who were on the down-low and closeted. He authored ten consecutive books that made The New York Times Best Seller list, making him among the most successful African-American or gay authors of his era.[2]
Biography
[edit | edit source]Harris was one of the first African-American students at Forest Heights Junior High and Hall High School in Little Rock. Harris had homes in Houston, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; and Fayetteville, Arkansas.[3]
In his writings, Harris maintained a poignant motif, occasionally emotive, that incorporated vernacular and slang from popular culture. Harris became the first black male cheerleader as well as the first black yearbook editor while attending the University of Arkansas. After graduation, he became a computer salesman with IBM, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard for 13 years living in Dallas, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. In 1990, Harris attempted suicide during a dark phase of depression and heavy drinking but later found the will to live through his writing. Harris relieved himself of his salesman duties and quit in order to begin writing his first novel.[4]
In June 2019, Harris was one of the inaugural fifty American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn.[5][6] The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history,[7] and the wall's unveiling was timed to take place during the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.[8]
Death
[edit | edit source]Harris died on July 23, 2009, while in Los Angeles, California, for a business meeting. He was found unconscious at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, and was pronounced dead at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.[9][10] According to the Office of the Los Angeles County Coroner, he died of heart disease complicated by hardening of the arteries and high blood pressure.[11]
Influence
[edit | edit source]A tribute anthology of stories called Visible Lives, by Terrance Dean, James Earl Hardy, and Stanley Bennett Clay, was published in 2010, inspired by Harris' novels.[12]
Bibliography
[edit | edit source]- Invisible Life (self-published 1991, mass-marketed 1994)
- Just As I Am (1995), winner of Blackboard's Novel of the Year Award
- And This Too Shall Pass (1997)
- If This World Were Mine (1998), winner of James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence
- Abide With Me (1999)
- Not A Day Goes By (2000)
- "Money Can't Buy Me Love" (2000) (short story), in Got to Be Real – 4 Original Love Stories by Eric Jerome Dickey, Marcus Major, E. Lynn Harris and Colin Channer (2001)
- Any Way the Wind Blows (2002), winner of Blackboard's Novel of the Year Award*
- A Love of My Own (2003), winner of Blackboard's Novel of the Year Award
- What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted – A Memoir (2003)
- Freedom in This Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men's Writing, 1979 to the Present (editor, 2005)
- I Say a Little Prayer (2006)
- Just Too Good To Be True (2008)
- Basketball Jones (2009)
- Mama Dearest (2009) (posthumously released)
- In My Father's House (2010) (posthumously released)
- No One in the World (2012) (posthumously released)
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Biography at freep.com.
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- ^ Hines, Vanessa Ward (April 2005), "Bestselling author motivates students to find themselves, live passion" The South End (Detroit), pg. 1.
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- ^ "Author E. Lynn Harris Died Thursday Night at Age 54", Snark Food, July 24, 2009.
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External links
[edit | edit source]- Official Publisher Page.
- E. Lynn Harris at IMDb
- E. Lynn Harris at Find a GraveLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- Obituary in The New York Times.
- Audio Interview with E. Lynn Harris.
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- 1955 births
- 2009 deaths
- 20th-century American novelists
- 21st-century American novelists
- African-American novelists
- American male novelists
- American soap opera writers
- American gay writers
- Lambda Literary Award winners
- African-American LGBTQ people
- People from Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Writers from Flint, Michigan
- Screenwriters from Arkansas
- American LGBTQ novelists
- LGBTQ people from Michigan
- American male screenwriters
- Screenwriters from Michigan
- 20th-century American male writers
- 21st-century American male writers
- Novelists from Michigan
- American male television writers
- 20th-century American screenwriters
- African-American screenwriters
- 20th-century African-American writers
- 21st-century African-American writers
- 20th-century American LGBTQ people
- 21st-century American LGBTQ people
- African-American male writers