Willard Motley, Knock on Any Door

Robert E. Fleming (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1947

Places

United States, Illinois (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Knock on Any Door

(1947) is the best-known novel of Willard Motley, an African American novelist noted for portraying a variety of ethnic protagonists. Nick Romano is the son of Italian immigrants who lose their small business in Denver during the depression of the 1930s. Sent to reform school for stealing a bicycle, a crime which he did not commit, Nick changes from an innocent former altar boy to a budding criminal. Upon his release, the family moves to Chicago to separate Nick from his dishonest companions, but Chicago is a worse hotbed of crime than Denver, and Nick falls in with a rough crowd of boys and is soon sent to a second reformatory, where he learns from older inmates how to commit crimes such as strong-arm robbery and auto theft.

After his release, Nick plays a minor

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558 words

Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "Knock on Any Door". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4210, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Willard Motley, Knock on Any Door

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