John A. Williams: Case Eighteen

Browse the Exhibit Cases:

Note: Case 21 contains audio and video clips.

Case Eighteen

SAM MIDDLETON

I met the painter Sam Middleton in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1964 where the then struggling artist, a former merchant marine during and after WWII, was living, having deserted Denmark for a somewhat warmer climate. A former Harlemite, Sam loved jazz and I liked his motifs of staffs, bars, and clefs among his sprays, dots, splatters, swirls and stabs, done in searingly bright contrasting colors. We have stayed in touch for 40 years.

"MIDDLETON," in An Ocean Apart: American Artists Abroad (exhibition) October 8, 1982 - January 9, 1983, The Studio Museum in Harlem. New York: The Studio Museum in Harlem (1982).

Sam Middleton (1987). Williams wrote the introduction to the catalog for a Middleton retrospective in the Netherlands.

Williams wrote the introduction to the catalog for this exhibition in the Netherlands at the Singer Museum, January 17 - February 29, 1999.

scanned book jacket for sam middleton: mischief and melancholy

Sam Middleton: Mischief and Melancholy (1998).

MIDDLETON, Sam. Autograph letter signed to Williams. 6 December 1982.

MIDDLETON, Sam. Autograph letter signed, to Williams. 7 October 1981.

PAINTING IN SOUND, Sam Middleton. Original typescript with author's corrections.

Miller Brewing Company's promotional brochure for GALLERY OF GREATS: BLACK AUTHORS, A VOICE FOR THE PEOPLE, 1990.

"PORTRAIT IN THE BLUE NOTE," in New York Stories, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Fall 2001).

IF I STOP I'LL DIE: THE COMEDY AND TRAGEDY OF RICHARD PRYOR (1991)

If I Stop I'll Die is my personal tribute to Richard Pryor, even though there are sections in the book where, in my effort to be thorough and honest, it may not seem so. Co-author Dennis A. Williams (also a writer) is my second son and as much a fan of Pryor's as I. Originally, this book was commissioned by an editor at a prominent publishing house but subsequently was rejected by her successor. Years later, when Thunder's Mouth Press expressed an interest in publishing it (provided I update it) I was involved in other projects, so I asked Dennis to collaborate with me.

Having had great difficulty getting my interview with Bill Cosby (April-May 1970) published, I was aware of the problems inherent in writing about such artists. (I still have, "in the can," days of interviews with Cos at Lake Tahoe for Amistad 2. Cosby's lawyers decided against granting permission to publish.)

So gathering and evaluating Pryor's background put me on the ground in his home town of Peoria, Ill., where I talked with neighbors, teachers, and friends (or so they said); in Hollywood, with lawyers and film people who'd worked with him. Unlike Cosby, Pryor refused a face-to-face interview. I was helped out here by a friend with whom I'd worked in Los Angeles in the fifties, but who by that time had become a hell-fired chief assistant at the film studio where Pryor had become a star.

Dennis and I worked well together. We were interviewed last year [2002] for a television special on Pryor, which aired in February 2003.

INTERVIEW WITH BILL COSBY. Original typescript of interview for Amistad 2. Unpublished.

Typed letter signed. From Williams to Richard Pryor. 10 April 1983.

IF I STOP I'LL DIE: THE COMEDY AND TRAGEDY OF RICHORD PRYOR. Original typescript, with author's corrections and additions.

scanned book jacket for if i stop i'll die: the comedy and tragedy of richard pryor

IF I STOP I'LL DIE: THE COMEDY AND TRAGEDY OF RICHARD PRYOR. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press (1991). First edition, signed by Williams and Dennis Williams.

COOKE, Dana L. Typed letter signed to Dennis and John A. Williams. 13 March 1992.

"TALENT LET LOOSE," Syracuse University Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 2 (March 1992).

REFLECTED IN MALCOLM: LIVING IN THE TIME OF X

Robert Lavelle, director of publications for Blackside Productions, contracted me to do a book on Malcolm X to tie in with the television series the company was producing about him. Bob, very specifically, asked me to relate my life and times to Malcolm's since we were about the same age. I did and was surprised to find myself suddenly replaced by another writer without a word from Blackside, which, however, did pay me.

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, U.S. Senate Building, Washington, D.C., March 1964. Photograph from Williams's personal collection.

FOR OURSELVES: THE IMAGES OF MALCOLM X (1992?). Proposal for a book of photographs to accompany the television documentary produced by Blackside Productions.

Williams met Malcolm X while working as a Newsweek foreign correspondent in the mid-1960s, and the interview was conducted in Nigeria; at that time Malcolm X had just completed his pilgrimage to Mecca.

REFLECTED IN MALCOLM: LIVING IN THE TIME OF X. Original typescript of unpublished young adult book.

ROMARE BEARDEN

My introduction to Romare Bearden's work in The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual came about through having met him at the formation of the unfortunately short-lived Black Academy of Arts and Letters in the sixties, where we were both on the board of directors. I've always been attracted to art, even though I can't draw a straight line. Bearden's work is bold, history laid over history, often haunting, often humorous. In that time before we met, it turned out that we lived in the same neighborhood -- I on Lafayette Street in Manhattan, and Romie and his wife, Nanette, a few blocks away on Canal Street. He died in 1988.

BEARDEN, Romare. Autograph letter, signed, to Williams. 1969.

The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual. New York: Abrams (1973). Introduction by Williams.

Williams and Bearden, Grenada, 1971.

A STREET GUIDE TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PARIS. Belleville, Mich.: Belleville Lake Press (1992). Co-edited with Michel Fabre. Original typescript.

FABRE, Michel. Typed letter signed, to Williams. 11 January 1991.

WAY B(L)ACK THEN AND NOW: A STREET GUIDE TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PARIS. Michel Fabre and John A. Williams. Center for American Culture Studies, Columbia University (1992).

A STREET GUIDE TO AFRICAN AMERICANS IN PARIS. Belleville, Mich.: Belleville Lake Press (1996). Co-edited with Michel Fabre. First edition.