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Bookgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Bookgirl
Post Number: 31
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 06:12 pm: | 
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The critically acclaimed author, poet, college professsor and community activist died Tuesday. He was 67.
Inspired by his childhood on the tough streets of central Newark, New Jersey and transformed by time served in prison, author Nathan Heard created a distinctive voice to the poverty-stricken underclass in the novels he wrote during the late 1960s and '70s.
Best known for his 1968 novel "Howard Street" -which centered around the love triangle involving a worker, pimp and a prostitute- Mr. Heard wrote with a gritty realism reminiscent of 1930s' proletarian authors such as John Steinbeck and Richard Wright, said Wesley Brown, professor of 19th and 20th century American literature at Rutgets University in New Brunswick.
"Howard Street" sold over a million copies and thrust him into the literary spotlight as one of the most accomplished African American writers in the late 20th century.
"Nathan Heard in that period of the 1960s was a leading force in fiction because he showed how writers could take a real experience and transform it to a useful vision," said poet Amiri Baraka, a close friend of Mr. Heard's.
In his lifetime, Heard also published four more novels: "A Cold Fire Burning", "House of Slammers", "To Reach A Dream", and "When Shadows Fall", as well as poems and plays all based on his Newark neighborhood and prison experience.
An electrifying speaker, Mr. Heard also taught creative writing at Rutgers University and Fresno State University in California, where he received the Most Distinguished Teacher Award in 1970.
Services are scheduled for tomorrow (3/22/04) in Newark.
His daughter, Dr. Natalie M. Heard has created the Nathan C. Heard Literary Scholarship Fund. All contributions will go toward providing selected Newark students with scholarships to persue a career in writing. |
Troy
Regular Poster
Username: Troy
Post Number: 50
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, March 21, 2004 - 11:29 pm: |
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Bookgirl -- thanks for sharing this information. May I quote you on this page http://authors.aalbc.com/nathanheard.htm
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Bookgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Bookgirl
Post Number: 33
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 01:01 pm: |
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Troy: I took that info from the local newspaper. It's in the public domain. |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 52
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 03:21 pm: |
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Bookgirl:
Thanx--I had never heard of him or this book. |
Eviana
Newbie Poster
Username: Eviana
Post Number: 22
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 03:50 pm: |
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Bookgirl,
I also want to say thanks for sharing, I'm going to have to read one or two of his novels as well, since I have never heard of him before now. |
Bookgirl
Regular Poster
Username: Bookgirl
Post Number: 34
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 22, 2004 - 04:22 pm: |
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Note to you both...."old skool" as the kids say. LOL
If you like Donald Goines and Iceberg Slim; you will love Nathan Heard. But he also has another dimension to his writing which is why he was accepted; for a time by the "literary establishment".
I think that HOWARD STREET was re-released a few years back. |
Chrishayden
Veteran Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 59
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 25, 2004 - 04:14 pm: |
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All:
A good project could be to compile a list of out of print classics like this. |
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