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Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File
An award–winning writer traces the life of the father of iconic Civil Rights martyr Emmett Till—a man who was executed by the Army ten years before Emmett’s murder. An evocative and personal exploration of individual and collective memory in America by one of the most formidable Black intellectuals of our time.
In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.
In The Louis Till File, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman's personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.
An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, The Louis Till File is completely original in its delivery—an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.
In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.
In The Louis Till File, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman's personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.
An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, The Louis Till File is completely original in its delivery—an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 15, 2016
About the author
John Edgar Wideman
79 books384 followersA widely-celebrated writer and the winner of many literary awards, he is the first to win the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice: in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday and in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. In 2000 he won the O. Henry Award for his short story "Weight", published in The Callaloo Journal.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
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January 5, 2017
Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File authored by acclaimed award winning author John Edgar Wideman is a powerful and necessary tribute to the largely overlooked historical Emmett Till case. In 1955, Wideman was the same age as Emmett Till (1941-1955), when he saw the shocking horror of the civil rights martyr pictured in a magazine. The American Civil Rights movement and protests increased following Till's brutal murder when his killer's were exonerated in a Mississippi court of law and set free.
The story of Emmett's father, Louis Till, was recalled in narrative details of the truth obtained from meticulous research of military records, the author traveled to France to visit Till's gravesite at a military cemetery. In a lyrical fictional account Till's young life is observed, meeting and dating his wife Mamie Till, and the routine observations as a private in the Army. On June 27, 1944, near the Italian town of Civitavecchia, where American soldiers were camped nearby, sirens sounded a false alarm, gunfire erupted as searchlights scanned the dark night sky. During this time, two Italian women were allegedly raped and another shot and killed. Two "colored" American Army privates Louis (NMI) Till and Fred A. McMurray were court martialed and hung for these crimes on July 2, 1945.
The Till file is a disturbing haphazard inconsistent combination of documents in no chronological order, some were predictability missing. Wideman finds in the deafening silence of no statement given by Till at his execution, the fabrication of files layered with lies, a gross injustice and tragic loss of these innocent men. There was another true story, when the author returned to the site of his family heritage in Promiseland, S.C. The railroad tracks, the empty schoolhouse and vacant shanty's, the church where his grandfather preached, the graveyard where his people were laid to rest. The only thing that remained the same was his deepest unspoken fear of returning to the south.
John Edgar Wideman has written a dozen bestselling books including: Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots and Sent For You Yesterday. He resides in both New York and France. * Also by Mamie Till-Mobley: Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (2005 re-issue)
The story of Emmett's father, Louis Till, was recalled in narrative details of the truth obtained from meticulous research of military records, the author traveled to France to visit Till's gravesite at a military cemetery. In a lyrical fictional account Till's young life is observed, meeting and dating his wife Mamie Till, and the routine observations as a private in the Army. On June 27, 1944, near the Italian town of Civitavecchia, where American soldiers were camped nearby, sirens sounded a false alarm, gunfire erupted as searchlights scanned the dark night sky. During this time, two Italian women were allegedly raped and another shot and killed. Two "colored" American Army privates Louis (NMI) Till and Fred A. McMurray were court martialed and hung for these crimes on July 2, 1945.
The Till file is a disturbing haphazard inconsistent combination of documents in no chronological order, some were predictability missing. Wideman finds in the deafening silence of no statement given by Till at his execution, the fabrication of files layered with lies, a gross injustice and tragic loss of these innocent men. There was another true story, when the author returned to the site of his family heritage in Promiseland, S.C. The railroad tracks, the empty schoolhouse and vacant shanty's, the church where his grandfather preached, the graveyard where his people were laid to rest. The only thing that remained the same was his deepest unspoken fear of returning to the south.
John Edgar Wideman has written a dozen bestselling books including: Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots and Sent For You Yesterday. He resides in both New York and France. * Also by Mamie Till-Mobley: Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America (2005 re-issue)
April 22, 2017
Who knew? When Emmett Till was brutally murdered in 1955, how many wondered where was his father? I had thought about that question upon learning the Till story, but never followed up. Well, apparently John Edgar Wideman was also intrigued about Emmett's father, Louis Till. This book is a result of that wondering, and like a great jazz band, the book is best described as an extraordinary example of improvisation. No melody, no straight rhythm, just a improvisational five star effort for the prose alone.
A great blending of writing instruments to bring us the tragedy of Louis Till. Fiction crossing into non-fiction bumping against memoir, rolling into imaginative investigation, stepping on poetry while touching on history. Just wow! John Wideman manages to mix all these instruments and produce a wonderful composition. Louis Till along with another Soldier was hanged by the US military for rape and murder while stationed in Italy during WWII. Based on the file of Louis Till, which the author obtains under the freedom of information act, the evidence against Till was virtually non existent. "Privates Till and Mcmurray are sentenced to death on the basis of being the wrong color in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong color, wrong place, wrong time, a mantra. A crime that over the course of our nation's history has transformed countless innocent people of color into guilty people."
This is a masterpiece of writing. So, while Ms. Mamie Till mourned the loss of her husband, ten years later she would also mourn the loss of her son. And because we never hear Louis Till's side of the story, his silence speaks volumes and thus John Wideman writes to save his life. And if writing can indeed save a life, then there is no finer example than this.
A great blending of writing instruments to bring us the tragedy of Louis Till. Fiction crossing into non-fiction bumping against memoir, rolling into imaginative investigation, stepping on poetry while touching on history. Just wow! John Wideman manages to mix all these instruments and produce a wonderful composition. Louis Till along with another Soldier was hanged by the US military for rape and murder while stationed in Italy during WWII. Based on the file of Louis Till, which the author obtains under the freedom of information act, the evidence against Till was virtually non existent. "Privates Till and Mcmurray are sentenced to death on the basis of being the wrong color in the wrong place at the wrong time. Wrong color, wrong place, wrong time, a mantra. A crime that over the course of our nation's history has transformed countless innocent people of color into guilty people."
This is a masterpiece of writing. So, while Ms. Mamie Till mourned the loss of her husband, ten years later she would also mourn the loss of her son. And because we never hear Louis Till's side of the story, his silence speaks volumes and thus John Wideman writes to save his life. And if writing can indeed save a life, then there is no finer example than this.
June 28, 2020
Μια απίστευτα γαμημένη, χαμένη ευκαιρία
Ένα απίστευτα κακό βιβλίο για ένα συγκλονιστικό θέμα
Αρχίζει απο τον Εμετ Τιλ, ένα 14χρονο μαύρο παιδί που λυντσαρίστηκε την δεκαετία του 50 επειδή σφύριξε σε μια λευκή κοπέλα. Οι δολοφόνοι του αθωώθηκαν. Αποκαλύφθηκε ότι ήταν γιος του Λουίς Τιλ που εκτελέστηκε ως στρατιώτης στην Ιταλία γιατί κατηγορήθηκε ότι βίασε μια νεαρή Ιταλιδα. Μόνο για αυτά δεν μιλάει...καποιες ξένες κριτικές μιλάνε για τον τρόπο γραφής stream of consciousness, ο συγγραφέας γράφει μέχρι πως έπαιρνε μάτι ο ίδιος ως παιδί τη μάνα του όταν έκανε μπάνιο...
Βέβαια, αν ήμουν bookstagrammer,θα το έπαιζα Συνατσακης, black lives matter. 5 αστεράκια...Αν ήμουν Καίτη Γαρμπή, has been που προσλαμβανει τουιτερα και ανακαλύπτει τα δικαιώματα των μαυρων, ομοίως. Αλλά ένα συγκλονιστικό θέμα δεν κάνει ένα καλό βιβλίο. Ειδικά όταν αναπτύσσεται τόσο απίστευτα κακά.
ΥΓ : και για όσους δεν κατάλαβαν, πραγματική ιστορία, υποτίθεται ότι το βιβλίο είναι non fiction
Ένα απίστευτα κακό βιβλίο για ένα συγκλονιστικό θέμα
Αρχίζει απο τον Εμετ Τιλ, ένα 14χρονο μαύρο παιδί που λυντσαρίστηκε την δεκαετία του 50 επειδή σφύριξε σε μια λευκή κοπέλα. Οι δολοφόνοι του αθωώθηκαν. Αποκαλύφθηκε ότι ήταν γιος του Λουίς Τιλ που εκτελέστηκε ως στρατιώτης στην Ιταλία γιατί κατηγορήθηκε ότι βίασε μια νεαρή Ιταλιδα. Μόνο για αυτά δεν μιλάει...καποιες ξένες κριτικές μιλάνε για τον τρόπο γραφής stream of consciousness, ο συγγραφέας γράφει μέχρι πως έπαιρνε μάτι ο ίδιος ως παιδί τη μάνα του όταν έκανε μπάνιο...
Βέβαια, αν ήμουν bookstagrammer,θα το έπαιζα Συνατσακης, black lives matter. 5 αστεράκια...Αν ήμουν Καίτη Γαρμπή, has been που προσλαμβανει τουιτερα και ανακαλύπτει τα δικαιώματα των μαυρων, ομοίως. Αλλά ένα συγκλονιστικό θέμα δεν κάνει ένα καλό βιβλίο. Ειδικά όταν αναπτύσσεται τόσο απίστευτα κακά.
ΥΓ : και για όσους δεν κατάλαβαν, πραγματική ιστορία, υποτίθεται ότι το βιβλίο είναι non fiction
December 31, 2016
*2.5 stars
Part memoir, part stream of consciousness, part historical this book was kind of a mess. I had some high hopes for this book, but I was a bit let down!
Wideman shuffles back and forth between his own childhood and the shady history of Emmett Till and his mostly unknown father Louis. He waxes lyrical about the French coast, his fathers barbershop and a bunch of dead jellyfish. At points it was hard to follow the story.
He does bring up good points about the group in power, (in Louis Till's case-the military) will use certain parts of a story to their advantage to put someone away, or cause their death. He delves a bit into the indomitable love that a woman has for their child and the man she chooses to marry, in spite of that mans faults. Some bright spots, but too all over the place to give any higher of a rating.
Part memoir, part stream of consciousness, part historical this book was kind of a mess. I had some high hopes for this book, but I was a bit let down!
Wideman shuffles back and forth between his own childhood and the shady history of Emmett Till and his mostly unknown father Louis. He waxes lyrical about the French coast, his fathers barbershop and a bunch of dead jellyfish. At points it was hard to follow the story.
He does bring up good points about the group in power, (in Louis Till's case-the military) will use certain parts of a story to their advantage to put someone away, or cause their death. He delves a bit into the indomitable love that a woman has for their child and the man she chooses to marry, in spite of that mans faults. Some bright spots, but too all over the place to give any higher of a rating.
Want to read
January 27, 2017I just ordered this book today. Read here for reasons to get it:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/0...
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/0...
March 31, 2017
I expected this to be a more straightforward investigative story into Louis Till's execution for rape and murder in 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army. There's some of that mixed with a lot Wideman's personal reflections on his own past. The narrative is too disjointed and stream of consciousness for my taste.
Read
October 2, 2021This is right up there with Yiyun Li's Where Reasons End in terms of emotional intensity and heaviness. Not a fun book. But an important and unforgettable one. It made me curious enough to want to read other Wideman books down the line.
June 8, 2021
I never knew about Luis Till, the father of Emmett Till. He was in the military and accused of a crime of rape and murder in Italy and executed. The author looked at transcripts to the trial and looks at the case.
December 8, 2016
I saw John Edgar Wideman at the Chicago Humanities Festival, and immediately began reading his book, a meditation on Emmett Till and his father Louis Till and mother Mamie, as well as Wideman's own father and mother.
This is a mixture of investigation, memory and speculation, fiction and non-fiction. Beautifully written and truly thought provoking.
This is a mixture of investigation, memory and speculation, fiction and non-fiction. Beautifully written and truly thought provoking.
February 6, 2017
Again Wideman can't help himself. We know he can write pretty. We know that. But he sometimes overdoes it a bit. Do we need so much of his personal anecdotes in order to connect the dots of Louis and Emmett Till's lives?
February 26, 2017
This book is beyond recap, beyond review. It's personal and unwieldy, beautiful sentences and heartbreaking realizations. It's also totally weird. I love it best when Wideman zeros down on himself.
September 29, 2022
more non-fiction like this please & thank you!!
March 19, 2017
I have to say that John Edgar Wideman's writing style is not for me. The premise of the books is fascinating: did Emmett Till's father--who was courtmartialed and executed for a rape-murder while serving in Europe in WWII--bequeath some sort of legacy that his son was destined to play out? But Wideman admits early on there is nearly no historical evidence about Louis Till's life, so he pursues an imaginative retelling of a hidden life.
December 13, 2016
thoughts coming shortly
September 2, 2020
This harrowing, difficult, and stylistically chaotic book recounts the author's explorations into the death of Louis Till, the father of Emmett Till. Emmett Till was famously murdered in 1955 for allegedly "wolf whistling" a white girl in Mississippi - his murderers were acquitted, but his mother famously requested that her son be buried in a glass coffin so viewers could his what was done to his face. What is less known that when the federal government considered bringing their own case, it was reported that Emmett's father, who was a WWII soldier in Italy, had been executed for allegedly raping an Italian woman. As apparently back then the sins of the fathers were visited upon their children, the federal case was never pursued.
Wideman explores the execution of Louis Till (including requesting documents about the case), his own feelings towards his own father, in a chaotic style that reflects the pain he feels looking into the past, and seeing the real horrors of racism at that time. It's extremely painful reading at times, and made me embarrassed to even be part of a country that perpetuated such horrors and injustice. He bounces around in style, perspective and narrative and creates a specific emotional feel.
That being said, the book ultimate fails as - expected - he can't maintain the tone for long and particularly in the second half of the book, it seems to dwindle to ramblings and space filling. It's hard to write in such an unstructured way and to convey meaning in a clear fashion for a long period and to hold the reader's attention. In addition, it seems pretty clear that while Louis Till did not receive a fair trial his silence in the face of the accusations seems puzzling. Wideman is much stronger in some cases than others - perhaps his weakest moment is when he creates a fake letter about the trial that "might" have been written, but only shows the extremity of his position on the case. Reality is complicated and nuanced.
I'm not sure how much dwelling on our racist past does however except make me admire how far this country has come since then. While writers like DiAngelo and Kendi tell us how racist we are right now, that simply is not true in the way it was back prior to the Civil Rights movement, as described by Wideman. This book really pushed me towards the thinking behind the Fields sisters book "Racecraft" and their comment from Frederick Douglas that "racism was living under Jim Crow". Certainly it helps to see the real, overt, evil racism that existed in the Jim Crow days once again as a reminder. Now perhaps we have a structurally racist society and being non-racist is not enough, but to suggest that this is somehow the driving force of our society - as it really was the driving force of the South in particular, seems overstated.
Wideman explores the execution of Louis Till (including requesting documents about the case), his own feelings towards his own father, in a chaotic style that reflects the pain he feels looking into the past, and seeing the real horrors of racism at that time. It's extremely painful reading at times, and made me embarrassed to even be part of a country that perpetuated such horrors and injustice. He bounces around in style, perspective and narrative and creates a specific emotional feel.
That being said, the book ultimate fails as - expected - he can't maintain the tone for long and particularly in the second half of the book, it seems to dwindle to ramblings and space filling. It's hard to write in such an unstructured way and to convey meaning in a clear fashion for a long period and to hold the reader's attention. In addition, it seems pretty clear that while Louis Till did not receive a fair trial his silence in the face of the accusations seems puzzling. Wideman is much stronger in some cases than others - perhaps his weakest moment is when he creates a fake letter about the trial that "might" have been written, but only shows the extremity of his position on the case. Reality is complicated and nuanced.
I'm not sure how much dwelling on our racist past does however except make me admire how far this country has come since then. While writers like DiAngelo and Kendi tell us how racist we are right now, that simply is not true in the way it was back prior to the Civil Rights movement, as described by Wideman. This book really pushed me towards the thinking behind the Fields sisters book "Racecraft" and their comment from Frederick Douglas that "racism was living under Jim Crow". Certainly it helps to see the real, overt, evil racism that existed in the Jim Crow days once again as a reminder. Now perhaps we have a structurally racist society and being non-racist is not enough, but to suggest that this is somehow the driving force of our society - as it really was the driving force of the South in particular, seems overstated.
March 15, 2018
Everybody knows the tragic story of Emmett Till, but I never really thought of his father before I began reading this book. I was expecting a more of an investigational story into the life of Louis Till, but Widemans storytelling seemed to be different. There wasn’t much history or facts, more of him making up fictional scenarios of what he believed could have happened in Louis Tills life, along with court and trial papers. It’s filled with beautiful writing and a wonderful concept, but at times was difficult to read because of the switching stories. I understand that Wideman wanted to incorporate his childhood and life into the book, but sometimes I would get confused on who I was reading about. Other than that it was a riveting story connecting the past to the present, captivating the sad truth of our country and racial injustice within our systems.
January 31, 2021
It answered many of my questions about both executions. It included great insight. I’m grateful for this book.
January 2, 2024
ككاتب لابد لك من الكتابة بحيادية خصوصاً إذا ما تناولت في كتاباتك سيرة أحدهم أو حدث تاريخي وقع قبل أن تولد، لأنك ببساطة إذا ما جرفتك المشاعر وتبنيت فكرة معينة حتى وإن كانت مناقضة لما حدث بالفعل ودون قرائن أو دلائل ستجد نفسك وقد انجرفت وراء قناعاتك وبدأت تسوغ لها المبررات وتزّيف الحقائق وتستميت في سبيل اثبات وجهة نظرك وقناعاتك.
ربما لمست كل ذلك من خلال سطور هذا الكتاب حيث وجدت أن الكاتب وبشيء من الهوس قد تناول حادثة قديمة تم فيها إعدام جندي أسود بتهمة الاغتصاب أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية، وبعد سنوات وفي حادثة منفصلة تعرض ابن ذلك الجندي للإعدام الوحشي بتهمة التحرش بسيدة بيضاء في حادثة عنصرية قد تكون صحيحة ومكتملة الأركان ، لكن الكاتب دمج بين القضيتين وجعل منهما حدثاً واحداً مرده الإجحاف و" العنصرية "!
فجاءت أحداث الكتاب لتحاول الاثبات بأن إعدام الجندي الأسود ما هو إلا تلفيق وظلم لأسباب عنصرية كما هو الحال بالنسبة لإعدام ابنه. وبدأ الكاتب في تخيل أحداث وحوارات لم تقع ولم تُثبت لتأكيد فرضيته!
الكتاب أيضاً يذكر فيه الكاتب الكثير من سيرته الذاتية ممزوجةً بالأحداث .
ربما لمست كل ذلك من خلال سطور هذا الكتاب حيث وجدت أن الكاتب وبشيء من الهوس قد تناول حادثة قديمة تم فيها إعدام جندي أسود بتهمة الاغتصاب أثناء الحرب العالمية الثانية، وبعد سنوات وفي حادثة منفصلة تعرض ابن ذلك الجندي للإعدام الوحشي بتهمة التحرش بسيدة بيضاء في حادثة عنصرية قد تكون صحيحة ومكتملة الأركان ، لكن الكاتب دمج بين القضيتين وجعل منهما حدثاً واحداً مرده الإجحاف و" العنصرية "!
فجاءت أحداث الكتاب لتحاول الاثبات بأن إعدام الجندي الأسود ما هو إلا تلفيق وظلم لأسباب عنصرية كما هو الحال بالنسبة لإعدام ابنه. وبدأ الكاتب في تخيل أحداث وحوارات لم تقع ولم تُثبت لتأكيد فرضيته!
الكتاب أيضاً يذكر فيه الكاتب الكثير من سيرته الذاتية ممزوجةً بالأحداث .
December 6, 2016
I am saddened to see that death rates have increased for middle-aged whites in America. Such an increase is unprecedented, and driven by "despair deaths" (drug addiction, alcoholism, and suicide) in a portion of this cohort. These are the "ignored" who have been left behind by technology and globalization. We should be giving them more help (training, jobs building infrastructure, etc.), but they also need to suck it up and realize how much they have benefited from white privilege.
The forty-ninth book I have finished this year.
See also:
Opinions -- Separate deaths of Emmett Till and his father Louis suggest a pattern of injustice
By Pamela Newkirk December 2 at 11:15 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...
p. 4 - 5. Again and again in courtrooms across America, killers are released as if the colored lives they have snatched away do not matter.
p. 17. All the words that follow are my yearning to make sense out of the American darkness that disconnects colored fathers from sons, a darkness in which sons and fathers lose track of one another.
p. 38. Treat us like slaves. Like animals. Yes they did. And nothing we could do about it.
p. 79. Did Emmett Till ever get a chance to make love?
p. 91. How many nieces with babies before they finish high school, how many nephews or nephews' monsoon the streets dealing drugs or slammed up in the joint. Or dead in an alley. Stop.
p. 104 - 105. For army officers at court-martial or serving on review boards, the cumulative weight of victim statements establish, beyond a shadow of doubt, Louis Till and Fred McMurray are perpetrators, even though each individual victim admits that darkness, hoods, masks, shock, confusion made it impossible to identify the men who attacked them.
p. 107. Explain and link crimes on the night of June 27 as a single, predictable outburst of the well-known lust and violence that seethes barely suppressed in the dark blood of colored soldiers.
p. 119. I was not there. I am not Louis Till. Not Mamie Till. I'm guilty of imagining pictures, sounds, words. Mine. I make them up. They could or could not be the way. It happened. Truth.
p. 137. But I had not foreseen the palpable presence of Till's enemies. Their thoroughness, implacability. Louis Till unable to shed them even in death.
p. 152. I was not in the CID lieutenant's office. Nor anywhere else in the DTC. I'm reporting imagination as fact. Unscrupulous as any army investigator. Worse because I claim to know better.
p. 163. Help us and we promise to guard your daughter's reputation.
I have always suspected that Darleen Druyun confessed to more than she did to protect her daughter from prosecutors.
p. 169. To stay alive he becomes very, very selfish. Very silent .
p. 192. Light I recall from my last day in Brittany, while I walked and listened deeper, longer to loneliness and darkness inside myself
The forty-ninth book I have finished this year.
See also:
Opinions -- Separate deaths of Emmett Till and his father Louis suggest a pattern of injustice
By Pamela Newkirk December 2 at 11:15 AM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...
p. 4 - 5. Again and again in courtrooms across America, killers are released as if the colored lives they have snatched away do not matter.
p. 17. All the words that follow are my yearning to make sense out of the American darkness that disconnects colored fathers from sons, a darkness in which sons and fathers lose track of one another.
p. 38. Treat us like slaves. Like animals. Yes they did. And nothing we could do about it.
p. 79. Did Emmett Till ever get a chance to make love?
p. 91. How many nieces with babies before they finish high school, how many nephews or nephews' monsoon the streets dealing drugs or slammed up in the joint. Or dead in an alley. Stop.
p. 104 - 105. For army officers at court-martial or serving on review boards, the cumulative weight of victim statements establish, beyond a shadow of doubt, Louis Till and Fred McMurray are perpetrators, even though each individual victim admits that darkness, hoods, masks, shock, confusion made it impossible to identify the men who attacked them.
p. 107. Explain and link crimes on the night of June 27 as a single, predictable outburst of the well-known lust and violence that seethes barely suppressed in the dark blood of colored soldiers.
p. 119. I was not there. I am not Louis Till. Not Mamie Till. I'm guilty of imagining pictures, sounds, words. Mine. I make them up. They could or could not be the way. It happened. Truth.
p. 137. But I had not foreseen the palpable presence of Till's enemies. Their thoroughness, implacability. Louis Till unable to shed them even in death.
p. 152. I was not in the CID lieutenant's office. Nor anywhere else in the DTC. I'm reporting imagination as fact. Unscrupulous as any army investigator. Worse because I claim to know better.
p. 163. Help us and we promise to guard your daughter's reputation.
I have always suspected that Darleen Druyun confessed to more than she did to protect her daughter from prosecutors.
p. 169. To stay alive he becomes very, very selfish. Very silent .
p. 192. Light I recall from my last day in Brittany, while I walked and listened deeper, longer to loneliness and darkness inside myself
January 14, 2018
Entre récit et fiction, John Edgar Wideman mêle sa propre histoire avec celle d'Emmett Till, ce jeune noir-américain battu et assassiné en 1955 pour avoir soi-disant "sifflé une blanche". En 1955, Wideman aussi avait quatorze ans, lui aussi avait un père soldat, lui aussi avait des ancêtres dans le Sud. La photographie du visage tuméfié d'Emmett Till le marque à jamais.
Un miroir, un portail, un reflet. Emmett Till est mort, coupable d'avoir été noir dans un monde raciste, coupable d'avoir eu un père noir et condamné pour viol des années plus tôt. Ses assassins ne furent jamais punis pour leurs crimes. L'injustice du verdict pousse Wideman à comprendre les raisons et à analyser avec acuité et poésie les rouages d'une société raciste. Son texte est puissant, important et malheureusement encore trop actuel dans l'Amérique de Trump. Écrire pour sauver une vie de l'oubli, celle de Louis Till, celle de son fils, l'histoire se répète, toujours la même. En mêlant trois histoires, Wideman met le doigt sur une vérité cruelle: être Noir c'est vivre dans l'injustice, c'est être par définition en dehors du système, c'est être moins qu'un Blanc. Emmett Till ç'aurait pu être lui, c'est déjà un peu lui. Emette est n'importe quel jeune homme Noir de quatorze ans vivant aux État-Unis.
Plein d'intelligence et de créativité, il arrive à mettre en lumière deux destins terribles dans une prose poétique, magique, lyrique parfois. Tirant sur le monologue intérieur ou le flux de pensée, son récit est parfois difficile à suivre, certains passages m'ont semblé obscurs. Je dois avouer que je n'ai pas compris tout ce qu'il tentait de me dire. Je ne pense pas que ce soit un livre pour tout le monde, c'est exigeant, parfois opaque ou étrange, mais la prose et le message en font un roman à lire !
Un miroir, un portail, un reflet. Emmett Till est mort, coupable d'avoir été noir dans un monde raciste, coupable d'avoir eu un père noir et condamné pour viol des années plus tôt. Ses assassins ne furent jamais punis pour leurs crimes. L'injustice du verdict pousse Wideman à comprendre les raisons et à analyser avec acuité et poésie les rouages d'une société raciste. Son texte est puissant, important et malheureusement encore trop actuel dans l'Amérique de Trump. Écrire pour sauver une vie de l'oubli, celle de Louis Till, celle de son fils, l'histoire se répète, toujours la même. En mêlant trois histoires, Wideman met le doigt sur une vérité cruelle: être Noir c'est vivre dans l'injustice, c'est être par définition en dehors du système, c'est être moins qu'un Blanc. Emmett Till ç'aurait pu être lui, c'est déjà un peu lui. Emette est n'importe quel jeune homme Noir de quatorze ans vivant aux État-Unis.
Plein d'intelligence et de créativité, il arrive à mettre en lumière deux destins terribles dans une prose poétique, magique, lyrique parfois. Tirant sur le monologue intérieur ou le flux de pensée, son récit est parfois difficile à suivre, certains passages m'ont semblé obscurs. Je dois avouer que je n'ai pas compris tout ce qu'il tentait de me dire. Je ne pense pas que ce soit un livre pour tout le monde, c'est exigeant, parfois opaque ou étrange, mais la prose et le message en font un roman à lire !
March 16, 2019
If the interior dialogue of the character of the mother, as she makes her husband's sandwich and anticipates the rough treatment of the sandwich's wax paper doesn't break your heart, you may be dead. If you don't recognize the genius of presenting a lifetime of pain in this inconsequential act, you surely are. On this book alone, Wideman is now among my top five favorite authors.
I was fortunate to have listened to the audio version of this brilliant work. Wideman's deeply interior musings are perfectly executed by Roger G. Smith's hushed tones and his understanding of the character voice that Wideman set down. There is no way I would have felt, heard and tasted all the exquisite nuance and cadence of Wideman without Smith. It is the difference between reading the musical score and hearing the symphony in performance.
I was fortunate to have listened to the audio version of this brilliant work. Wideman's deeply interior musings are perfectly executed by Roger G. Smith's hushed tones and his understanding of the character voice that Wideman set down. There is no way I would have felt, heard and tasted all the exquisite nuance and cadence of Wideman without Smith. It is the difference between reading the musical score and hearing the symphony in performance.
December 29, 2017
This book is a failure, and Wideman knows it. He can't save himself. He can't save the lives of all the black fathers and sons this country is bent on executing. He can't even redeem Louis Till, the father of Emmett, whose memory surfaced during the trials of Emmett's killers, the WWII private who was tried and summarily hung for rape and murder in Italy.
Maybe I would have liked the book better if it had stayed on one thread -- Louis and Emmett, Wideman and his father, Clement. As it is, the book is readable, but it never stands on its own. It's an essay that can't quite come to conclusion, a memoir that forgets itself, a novel too hard to write.
Maybe I would have liked the book better if it had stayed on one thread -- Louis and Emmett, Wideman and his father, Clement. As it is, the book is readable, but it never stands on its own. It's an essay that can't quite come to conclusion, a memoir that forgets itself, a novel too hard to write.
November 28, 2016
John Edgar Wideman researches the story of Louis Till, and draws comparisons to his own life and current situations. A necessary perspective.
Shelved as 'gave-up'
February 2, 2017I just couldn't handle the narrator whispering most of the book. Gave up. May read the print book instead of listening to audio.
December 20, 2017
1.5 stars
September 21, 2018
Writing to Save a Life: The Louis Till File
by John Edgar Wideman
reviewed by NC Weil
This riveting book explores the death of Emmett Till (the black teenager murdered in Money, Mississippi in 1955 for purportedly whistling at a white woman) through the execution of his father, Louis Till, by the US Army during World War II.
Following the rapid acquittal of Emmett Till's murderers, international outcry pressured the Mississippi court system to at least pursue the lesser charge of kidnapping against them. The grand jury was poised to do so, when the spectre of Louis Till, Emmett's father, was introduced. While stationed in Italy serving in the Army's Transportation Command, where most black enlistees were posted, he was tried and convicted of raping and murdering a local woman. The damning testimony was given in exchange for clemency by one of his comrades, and Louis and another man were court-martialed then executed by hanging - lynched - in Italy, in July, 1945. The story of Louis Till's court-martial was released to the public (the papers) in October of 1955.
Why then, a decade after his execution? Wideman has no doubt the disclosure was timed to turn public opinion against young Emmett and his mother Mamie by drawing a like-father-like-son parallel between Louis Till, unable to speak in his own defense, and Emmett, likewise silenced. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Wideman obtains a copy of Louis Till's file from the US Archives. Reading about this unrepentant man, the author cannot help seeing his own life: his distant stone-faced father, not unlike "I'll be back when I'm back" Louis Till. Wideman sees that coldness as the armor a black man was/is forced to wear in a society that constantly degrades him, insults him, robs him of manhood, and may very well murder him simply for existing. When he slams the front door in departing his house, whether on the way to his daily job or for a night spent elsewhere, it's never a given that he will return.
During his court-martial, "Till remained adamantly silent... a stubborn silence that must have puzzled and frustrated his army interrogators since all the other accused colored soldiers were busy accusing one another. Breaking his silence once..., Louis Till allegedly said to Rousseau, "There's no use in me telling you one lie and then getting up in court and telling another one," a remark that clearly conveys to me and should have conveyed to Rousseau Till's Igbo sophistication, his resignation, his Old World, ironic sense of humor about truth's status in a universe where all truths are equal until power chooses one truth to serve its needs."
So why is Wideman writing this book "to save a life," as he puts it? "I work for an incarcerated son and brother. They are locked inside me, I am imprisoned with them during every moment that I struggle with the Till file. No choice. Trying to find words to help them. To help myself. Help carry the weight of hard years spent behind bars. If I return to Till's grave, I will confess to him first thing that the Louis Till project is about saving a son and a brother, about saving myself."
This is fine writing, and a different way of considering a single terrible deed: connecting it to a larger world of injustice dissolves some of the immediacy of Emmett Till's murder, but draws back far enough to make that grotesque act a single chip in a mosaic. Narrow your eyes and it comes into focus: a black man in a noose. It's long past time to cut him down, cut it out. Think about it, and read this book.
by John Edgar Wideman
reviewed by NC Weil
This riveting book explores the death of Emmett Till (the black teenager murdered in Money, Mississippi in 1955 for purportedly whistling at a white woman) through the execution of his father, Louis Till, by the US Army during World War II.
Following the rapid acquittal of Emmett Till's murderers, international outcry pressured the Mississippi court system to at least pursue the lesser charge of kidnapping against them. The grand jury was poised to do so, when the spectre of Louis Till, Emmett's father, was introduced. While stationed in Italy serving in the Army's Transportation Command, where most black enlistees were posted, he was tried and convicted of raping and murdering a local woman. The damning testimony was given in exchange for clemency by one of his comrades, and Louis and another man were court-martialed then executed by hanging - lynched - in Italy, in July, 1945. The story of Louis Till's court-martial was released to the public (the papers) in October of 1955.
Why then, a decade after his execution? Wideman has no doubt the disclosure was timed to turn public opinion against young Emmett and his mother Mamie by drawing a like-father-like-son parallel between Louis Till, unable to speak in his own defense, and Emmett, likewise silenced. Through the Freedom of Information Act, Wideman obtains a copy of Louis Till's file from the US Archives. Reading about this unrepentant man, the author cannot help seeing his own life: his distant stone-faced father, not unlike "I'll be back when I'm back" Louis Till. Wideman sees that coldness as the armor a black man was/is forced to wear in a society that constantly degrades him, insults him, robs him of manhood, and may very well murder him simply for existing. When he slams the front door in departing his house, whether on the way to his daily job or for a night spent elsewhere, it's never a given that he will return.
During his court-martial, "Till remained adamantly silent... a stubborn silence that must have puzzled and frustrated his army interrogators since all the other accused colored soldiers were busy accusing one another. Breaking his silence once..., Louis Till allegedly said to Rousseau, "There's no use in me telling you one lie and then getting up in court and telling another one," a remark that clearly conveys to me and should have conveyed to Rousseau Till's Igbo sophistication, his resignation, his Old World, ironic sense of humor about truth's status in a universe where all truths are equal until power chooses one truth to serve its needs."
So why is Wideman writing this book "to save a life," as he puts it? "I work for an incarcerated son and brother. They are locked inside me, I am imprisoned with them during every moment that I struggle with the Till file. No choice. Trying to find words to help them. To help myself. Help carry the weight of hard years spent behind bars. If I return to Till's grave, I will confess to him first thing that the Louis Till project is about saving a son and a brother, about saving myself."
This is fine writing, and a different way of considering a single terrible deed: connecting it to a larger world of injustice dissolves some of the immediacy of Emmett Till's murder, but draws back far enough to make that grotesque act a single chip in a mosaic. Narrow your eyes and it comes into focus: a black man in a noose. It's long past time to cut him down, cut it out. Think about it, and read this book.
March 6, 2017
In this scalding, measured book on race and justice in America, Wideman considers the case of Louis Till, Emmet Till’s father, who was a solider during the Second World War executed by the army in Italy for rape and murder. Wideman’s book rescues Louis Till from the obscurity of being a footnote to two other stories, one small and one large. One of his fellow prisoners in 1945 was Ezra Pound, who referenced Till’s imprisonment and death in his Cantos.
The larger story, of course, was that of his son’s brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955. The father’s conviction becomes a shamefully clumsy white thumb on justice’s scale in the acquittal of the two white men who murdered Emmet Till. A southern senator gets the case documents declassified so that they can find their way to defense attorneys, who use it to lend cover for a foregone conclusion of not guilty by the all-white jury. Like father, like son was the defense’s not subtle damning of the victim, the 14-year-old Till, linking him to his father’s crimes and the racist trope of the black sexual predator. The defense was supported by the testimony of the woman at the center of the case, whose honor these gentlemen of the (white) South were defending when they tortured, shot, and mutilated, before tossing the weighted-down teenager’s body into the river. The wife of one of the accused, she told the jury she had been grabbed and threatened by Emmet Till (see Birth of a Nation or read Gone With the Wind to know what that description was supposed to conjure up in a white jury’s mind).
Decades later, she admitted that the grabbing and threatening was a lie. It never happened. What actually happened prior to the brutal murder will likely never be known. Did Emmet whistle, or merely look at the young woman a second too long, or did he do nothing at all and was instead the victim of a convenient lie she told, as a battered woman who was hoping to distract her husband’s attention from herself? Whatever happened before the murder, the verdict should have been guilty but wasn’t. The murder went unpunished but it was one of the flashpoints of the modern Civil Rights Movement, right there with Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education (1954), Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), and the Little Rock Nine’s effort to desegregate Central High School (1957).
Wideman has many points of entry into the Till story—he was about the same age as Emmet Till was in 1955 and southern born but northern-raised; his father, like Emmet’s was not a reliable presence in his young life. Further, he has a brother in jail for murder and a son, who was just recently released from prison hospital for a senseless murder he committed as a teenager; so he is a man well aware of the presence of violence in America and the role of race in our society and our systems. Finally, he is a restless searcher after truth. He unpacks all the many reasons we can neither confirm nor contradict the military court’s verdict regarding Louis Till. He outlines the likely counter-narratives, the role race or simple expedience may have played in a quick trial held at war’s end where a presumption of guilt may have had many sources.
In the end, Wideman unsettles any certainty with the obvious point that justice in an unjust society may never be more than accidental occurrence at best, and in many cases, may just mask further injustice. It could be viewed as frustrating that there is no clear answer regarding Louis Till’s fate, but what Wideman makes perfectly clear is how tenuous life and safety has been for Black Americans in his life time. And cases from Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice to Sandra Bland to Philando Castile offer proof that that fact has been tragically slow to improve and may likely get worse again under the new regime in the Department of Justice, which makes the title of Writing to Save a Life have an expansive, urgent meaning, not just a description of how the author made his way to where he is. It is a haunting, provocative, essential book.
The larger story, of course, was that of his son’s brutal murder in Mississippi in 1955. The father’s conviction becomes a shamefully clumsy white thumb on justice’s scale in the acquittal of the two white men who murdered Emmet Till. A southern senator gets the case documents declassified so that they can find their way to defense attorneys, who use it to lend cover for a foregone conclusion of not guilty by the all-white jury. Like father, like son was the defense’s not subtle damning of the victim, the 14-year-old Till, linking him to his father’s crimes and the racist trope of the black sexual predator. The defense was supported by the testimony of the woman at the center of the case, whose honor these gentlemen of the (white) South were defending when they tortured, shot, and mutilated, before tossing the weighted-down teenager’s body into the river. The wife of one of the accused, she told the jury she had been grabbed and threatened by Emmet Till (see Birth of a Nation or read Gone With the Wind to know what that description was supposed to conjure up in a white jury’s mind).
Decades later, she admitted that the grabbing and threatening was a lie. It never happened. What actually happened prior to the brutal murder will likely never be known. Did Emmet whistle, or merely look at the young woman a second too long, or did he do nothing at all and was instead the victim of a convenient lie she told, as a battered woman who was hoping to distract her husband’s attention from herself? Whatever happened before the murder, the verdict should have been guilty but wasn’t. The murder went unpunished but it was one of the flashpoints of the modern Civil Rights Movement, right there with Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education (1954), Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), and the Little Rock Nine’s effort to desegregate Central High School (1957).
Wideman has many points of entry into the Till story—he was about the same age as Emmet Till was in 1955 and southern born but northern-raised; his father, like Emmet’s was not a reliable presence in his young life. Further, he has a brother in jail for murder and a son, who was just recently released from prison hospital for a senseless murder he committed as a teenager; so he is a man well aware of the presence of violence in America and the role of race in our society and our systems. Finally, he is a restless searcher after truth. He unpacks all the many reasons we can neither confirm nor contradict the military court’s verdict regarding Louis Till. He outlines the likely counter-narratives, the role race or simple expedience may have played in a quick trial held at war’s end where a presumption of guilt may have had many sources.
In the end, Wideman unsettles any certainty with the obvious point that justice in an unjust society may never be more than accidental occurrence at best, and in many cases, may just mask further injustice. It could be viewed as frustrating that there is no clear answer regarding Louis Till’s fate, but what Wideman makes perfectly clear is how tenuous life and safety has been for Black Americans in his life time. And cases from Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice to Sandra Bland to Philando Castile offer proof that that fact has been tragically slow to improve and may likely get worse again under the new regime in the Department of Justice, which makes the title of Writing to Save a Life have an expansive, urgent meaning, not just a description of how the author made his way to where he is. It is a haunting, provocative, essential book.
June 13, 2017
I stuck with it because I have a ton of respect for John Edgar Wideman and loved many of his books. Very interesting subject matter - the mostly unknown story of Louis Till - but I had a hard time just comprehending some of the more stream of consciousness stuff. I also felt that he left a lot of insight out considering his own experiences with his brother and son. Maybe that is because he was present for those and answered all his questions. This probably would have been 1 star for me if I didn't already have some background and context on both the author and subject matter.
It left me with some things to think about. Mostly I'm thinking about why a lot of the book was there. I'm searching for the importance of jellyfish, hair on a barbershop floor, first loves. I think Wideman is too intentional a writer to add passages for no reason, otherwise I'd say this would be better as an essay, leaving all the seemingly irrelevant stuff out.
Right now, I'm thinking he's showing how his mind rambled when searching for truth about the Louis Till, and how his own experiences affect what he trusts and believes. Nobody cared enough about hanging a black man for a crime to make sure he was really guilty and the recording complete in the first place. Nobody cared what didn't add up when they needed that history of the father Emmett barely knew to excuse those who tortured and murdered him. He showed how even family history and lore are subjective and unreliable. Two people remember the same thing differently. One family member disputes what the other claims as experience. How do we find the truth in anything? We don't. Louis Till knew this, that history is in the hands of those who write it and claim it, and it's why he was silent.
The only truths Wideman seemed to find were the ones he had all along.
It left me with some things to think about. Mostly I'm thinking about why a lot of the book was there. I'm searching for the importance of jellyfish, hair on a barbershop floor, first loves. I think Wideman is too intentional a writer to add passages for no reason, otherwise I'd say this would be better as an essay, leaving all the seemingly irrelevant stuff out.
Right now, I'm thinking he's showing how his mind rambled when searching for truth about the Louis Till, and how his own experiences affect what he trusts and believes. Nobody cared enough about hanging a black man for a crime to make sure he was really guilty and the recording complete in the first place. Nobody cared what didn't add up when they needed that history of the father Emmett barely knew to excuse those who tortured and murdered him. He showed how even family history and lore are subjective and unreliable. Two people remember the same thing differently. One family member disputes what the other claims as experience. How do we find the truth in anything? We don't. Louis Till knew this, that history is in the hands of those who write it and claim it, and it's why he was silent.
The only truths Wideman seemed to find were the ones he had all along.
February 24, 2017
An award–winning writer traces the life of the father of iconic Civil Rights martyr Emmett Till—a man who was executed by the Army ten years before Emmett’s murder. An evocative and personal exploration of individual and collective memory in America by one of the most formidable Black intellectuals of our time.
In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.
In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman's personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.
An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, Writing to Save a Life is completely original in its delivery—an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.
In 1955, Emmett Till, aged fourteen, traveled from his home in Chicago to visit family in Mississippi. Several weeks later he returned, dead; allegedly he whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie, wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. She chose to leave his casket open. Images of her brutalized boy were published widely. While Emmett’s story is known, there’s a dark side note that’s rarely mentioned. Ten years earlier, Emmett’s father was executed by the Army for rape and murder.
In Writing to Save a Life, John Edgar Wideman searches for Louis Till, a silent victim of American injustice. Wideman's personal interaction with the story began when he learned of Emmett’s murder in 1955; Wideman was also fourteen years old. After reading decades later about Louis’s execution, he couldn’t escape the twin tragedies of father and son, and tells their stories together for the first time. Author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Wideman brings extraordinary insight and a haunting intimacy to this devastating story.
An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, Writing to Save a Life is completely original in its delivery—an engaging and enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons. Wideman turns seventy-five this year, and he brings the force of his substantial intellect and experience to this beautiful, stirring book, his first nonfiction in fifteen years.
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