John A. Williams: Case 16-20

Case 16

JACOB'S LADDER (1987)

Two former "traditional publishers" of mine turned this down. One had said they wanted very much to do it, but then had a change of heart. Eventually, Thunder's Mouth Press published it. The novel goes back to 1966 and it stays there. It is the first novel that I've set entirely outside the United States; the setting is in a west African country.

Earl Cash's book, John A. Williams: The Evolution of a Black Writer (1975), is the first I know of that is derived from a dissertation. Gilbert H. Muller's John A. Williams (Twayne's United States Authors Series # 472) was published nine years later and therefore contains far more material. I understand that two more dissertations in French (in addition to N'Goma's) have been written. There are a few others that have been done by Americans, but I've not seen them.

TEXTBOOKS

Putting textbooks together is a major job. Gil Muller, another former colleague at LaGuardia, was the force behind this venture. Gil had done a study on me for the Twayne United States Authors Series (#472) in 1984. McGraw-Hill kept changing editors on us, but thanks to Gil's perseverance and encouragement, I stayed on the project. I thought it was important for me to be involved in such a work. The problem, as it developed when the book was published, was that there were few teachers of English who knew my work.