William Gardner Smith

Alexa Weik von Mossner (Universität Klagenfurt)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
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

Born 6 Feb 1927
Died 1974
Activity 1946-1974

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Smith's Works

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When William Gardner Smith’s first novel,

Last of the Conquerors

, was published in 1948, he was only twenty-one years old. The book became a critical and commercial success, and the young writer seemed to be the heir apparent to Richard Wright, perhaps the most famous African American author of his time, but this promise was never realized. Though Smith claimed to have written ten novels in his short lifetime, only four, and one book of non-fiction, were ever published. He did go on to become a successful journalist, however, writing not only for various African-American publications, but also, after his expatriation in 1951, for the French news service Agence France Presse (AFP). Today, he is primarily remembered for journalistic pieces about the black expatriate community in Paris in…

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1559 words

Citation: Weik von Mossner, Alexa. "William Gardner Smith". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4129, accessed 24 November 2024.]