Ishmael Reed (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
Biography
Ishmael Scott Reed was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 22, 1938, the son of Henry Lenoir and Thelma Coleman. A year later, his mother married Bennie Stephen Reed, and the infant Ishmael assumed his stepfather's name.
When World War II began, Reed's mother moved north to find work in factories depopulated by the draft, and young Ishmael went with her. They settled in Buffalo, New York, where Reed would spend the following twenty years. Reed's first encouragement in his writing came from his mother: When he was a boy, she asked him to write a poem...
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