Background

James Emanuel was born on November 22, 1928, in Alliance, Nebraska, United States. He spent his early years in the western United States where he worked at a variety of jobs.

Education

After his discharge, he did his undergraduate work at Howard University and obtained graduate degrees from Northwestern University (M.A.) and Columbia University (Ph.D.).

Career

At the age of twenty he joined the United States Army and served as confidential secretary to the Assistant Inspector General of the U.S. Army Benjamin O. Davis, Sr.

James then moved to New York City, where he taught at the City College of New York (CUNY), where in the 1960s he taught the college's first class on African-American poetry and mentored future scholars.

Emanuel also worked as an editor, with his first editorial project being the publication of a collection of poetry by Langston Hughes, whom Emanuel considered his mentor.

Emanuel eventually taught at the University of Toulouse (in 1968–1969), at the University of Grenoble, and at the University of Warsaw.

Achievements

• Emanuel, who is ranked by some critics as one of the best and most neglected poets of the 20th century, published more than 300 poems, 13 individual books, an influential anthology of African American literature, an autobiography, and more. He is also credited with creating a new literary genre, jazz-and-blues haiku, often read with musical accompaniment.

Works

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• book

  • Black Man Abroad: The Toulouse Poems 1978
  • Deadly James and Other Poems 1987
  • Broken Bowl: New and Uncollected Poems 1983
  • Whole Grain: Collected Poems 1991
  • The treehouse, and other poems, (Broadside poets) 1968
  • Panther man, 1970

Views

Emanuel became frustrated with the state of racism in America.

Connections

In 1950 James married Mattie Johnson, but they broke up in 1974. They had a son, but he died in 1983.

Wife:

Mattie Johnson