The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka (Masterplots II: Juvenile and Young Adult Biography Series)
At a glance:
- Author: Amiri Baraka
- First Published: 1984
- Time of Work: 1934–1974
- Setting: Newark, New Jersey; Washington, D.C.; Illinois; Puerto Rico; and New York City
- Principal Characters: LeRoi Jones, LeRoi’s father, LeRoi’s Grandmother, Steve Korrett, Allen Ginsberg, Nellie Kohn, Sylvia Wilson, Ron Karena
- Genres: Nonfiction, Autobiography
- Subjects: African Americans, Social action, Self-discovery, Politics, Racism, Race, Autobiography, Poetry or poets, Drama or dramatists
- Locales: New York, NY, Washington, D.C., Newark, NJ, Illinois, Puerto Rico
Form and Content
In his early roles as poet, dramatist, radical organizer, and spokesperson for African-American causes, LeRoi Jones’s public, outspoken, and sometimes fiery side provided many opportunities to be misunderstood. Surely that was the impetus for Jones, who changed his name to Amiri Baraka, to write The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, a detailed account of the first forty years of his life. Baraka shows the connections between diverse personal and public worlds in nine chapters. The first eight chapters segment significant stages in Baraka’s...
[The entire page is 1489 words long]
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