William Demby

A critical biography of the legendary Afro-Gothic novelist, actor, and screenwriter in mid-century Italy.

The latest from the legendary author of Mumbo Jumbo and The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda, William Demby: Goth Before It Was Cool is Ishmael Reed's first book-length work of non-fiction in over a decade, and a unique and urgent document. Combining memoir, biography, oral history, and criticism, Reed has concocted something only he could write—at once scathing and eye-opening, a loving tribute to a great writer and a personal appraisal of why he never got his due in life. A novelist, screenwriter, journalist, actor, and all-around renaissance man whose pioneering works of gothic atmosphere and metafictional depth continue to reverberate today, Demby is an enduring figure of intrigue in whom Reed also sees the embodiment of cultural currents both personal and political.

Careening from 1950s Italy to Sag Harbor of the 1980s, and touching on third rails of race, gender, and class, Reed evokes debates and milieus crossing continents and eras, with cameos from Roberto Rossellini to Betty Friedan, resurrecting the story of a great mid-century Black artist (who is only now receiving the reissue treatment from Vintage), as well as Reed's own parallel journey as publisher, raconteur, and of course as one of our greatest living writers.

Featuring never-before-seen photographs from Demby's archives and a foreword from Demby scholar Melanie Masterton Sherazi, this unclassifiable book is a late-career milestone from Ishmael Reed, and a perfect introduction to his peerless non-fiction. Post-war Italy, Black Arts, and American literati collide in a revelatory work setting the record straight about a significant author and the times in which he lived.