| Intro | African-American novelist |
| Was |
Writer Novelist |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 6 June 1934 |
| Death |
25 November 1991, Athens (aged 57 years) |
Raymond Andrews (June 6, 1934 – November 25, 1991) was an African-American novelist.
Biography
Early life and education
Raymond Andrews was born June 6, 1934 in Plainview, Georgia and grew up in north central Georgia. Andrews’ parents, George and Viola Andrews, were sharecroppers and he was the fourth of their ten children. At age fifteen Andrews moved away to Atlanta, Georgia where he began working and attending high school at Booker T. Washington High School. Andrews graduated from Washington High School in 1952. Following his graduation, he served four years in the United States Air Force.
Career
After he finished his tour of duty in Korea, he attended Michigan State University before moving to New York City where he held a variety of jobs. Andrews lived in New York City until 1984. While living there he got married and worked numerous of jobs such as an airline agent, air courier, and proofreader.
Andrews’ first national publication was in an issue of Sports Illustrated and was written about the first time the game of football had ever been played in the Plainview community where he grew up. In the early 1970s he began publishing his Muskhogean trilogy which told about the life of an African American in the south from the end of World War I to the beginning of the 1960s. The trilogy consists of Appalachee Red, Rosiebelle Lee Wildcat Tennessee, and Baby Sweet’s.
The books written by Raymond Andrews have been applauded by numerous critics and other writers. Novelist Richard Bausch described Andrew’s writing as having “a smiling generosity of spirit.”
Marriage and children
Andrews married Adelheid “Heidi” Wenger in 1966 in New York City. The couple divorced in 1980.
Death and afterward
Andrews died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Athens, Georgia on November 25, 1991.
Published works
- Appalachee Red (Dial Press, 1978)
- Rosiebelle Lee Wildcat Tennessee (Dial Press, 1980)
- Baby Sweet’s (Dial Press, 1983)
- The Last Radio Baby (Peachtree Publishers, 1990)
- Jessie and Jesus; and, Cousin Claire (Peachtree Publishers, 1991)
- Once Upon a Time in Atlanta (Chattahoochee Review, 1998)
-
“Silenced voice speaks through writings”. The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. 1998-03-26. p. J13.
He later wrote about his pain, joy and revelations in segregated Atlanta in the autobiographic “Once Upon a Time in Atlanta”. When Andrews committed suicide in 1991, the work could have died with him. But it was picked up by DeKalb College’s literary magazine, The Chattahoochee Review…
Awards
- 1979: James Baldwin Prize
- 2009: inductee, Georgia Writers Hall of Fame
- http://www.libs.uga.edu/gawriters/andrews.html Honorees