Willard Motley: Let No Man Write my Epitaph

Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1958) by Chicago African American novelist Willard Motley returns to the scene and to some of the same characters of the author's best-selling novel Knock on Any Door (1947). Motley picks up the lives of two minor characters from the earlier novel, Nellie Watkins, a girl friend of Nick Romano, and Louie Romano, Nick's brother, who was a small child when Nick was executed. He further reveals that Nellie became pregnant by Nick and now has a child, whom she has names Nick Romano, Jr.

Nellie reveres Nick as the one great love of her life and does her best to raise Nick, Jr. as a living monument to his father even though she lives in a slum and ekes out a living as a waitress. In spite of