John Edgar Wideman (Cyclopedia of World Authors)

John Edgar Wideman’s literary achievements since the publication of his first novel, A Glance Away, provide compelling evidence of the diverse cultural and creative influences operating upon the imagination. Having grown up in the black community of Homewood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Wideman began his odyssey away from those roots—a central theme of his early writing—when in 1959 he was awarded a Benjamin Franklin scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania, where he became a Phi Beta Kappa scholar and distinguished himself in both creative writing and intercollegiate...

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