Anatole Broyard
Anatole Broyard was an influential American writer and literary critic, born in 1920 in New Orleans and later raised in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. His family background included African American heritage, with his father passing for white to navigate the racial barriers of the time. Broyard's complex relationship with his racial identity became a notable subject of discussion, particularly in the context of his assimilation into predominantly white literary circles. After a brief stint at Brooklyn College and military service during World War II, he opened a used bookstore in Greenwich Village, which became a cultural hub for avant-garde literature.
Broyard's literary career began to flourish through contributions to prestigious journals, and he published works that showcased his evolving voice as a writer. He later joined The New York Times, where he worked as a book reviewer and editor, solidifying his impact on literary criticism. His essays, particularly those reflecting on illness and mortality, resonate with readers even after his passing in 1990 from prostate cancer. Broyard's legacy continues to be explored in literary discussions, particularly regarding race, identity, and the complexities of his life experiences.
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Subject Terms
Anatole Broyard
Writer
- Born: July 16, 1920
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana
- Died: October 11, 1990
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Biography
Born in 1920 in New Orleans, Anatole Broyard moved with his family to the area of Brooklyn known as Bedford-Stuyvesant. Broyard’s father was a carpenter, and both parents were African Americans, but his father “passed” for white and was thereby able to become a union carpenter in New York, where black applicants routinely faced discrimination. Anatole Broyard’s light skin and his own racial identity were the subject of an article by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; the article explored Broyard’s assimilation and his apparent rejection of his black identity.
After finishing Boys High School in 1938, Broyard attended Brooklyn College for a few semesters. Broyard married a woman named Aida, a black Puerto Rican, with whom he had one child. They divorced in the late 1940’s. Broyard spent 1942 through 1945 in the Army and served as a captain in the Navy in Japan. After returning to New York, he opened a used bookstore called Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. Cornelia Street was a nexus of the Village, and it drew readers hungry for influential European avant-garde writers. Broyard recounted those days in Kafka Was the Rage: A Greenwich Village Memoir, published in 1993.
Anatole Broyard began studying at New School for Social Research and submitted to psychoanalysis, spurred by his exposure to New School faculty like Fromm and Wertheimer. The expectation that an analyst would be a peer with whom Broyard could discuss writing sabotaged the therapy. Broyard began to be recognized as a writer during this period and published in journals like Commentary and Partisan Review. A short story entitled “What the Cytoscope Said,” originally published in 1954, built considerable expectations for a novel that did not appear. Broyard left Cornelia Street around this time and supported himself in various jobs, including as a copywriter for Book-of-the-Month Club and as a part-time teacher at the New School.
Anatole Broyard married Alexandra (“Sandy”) Nelson in 1961, and in 1963 they left New York City for Fairfield, Connecticut. Broyard continued to work in Manhattan at an advertising agency until 1971. He began to write book reviews for The New York Times in 1971. His reviews and writings for The New York Times were collected in Aroused by Books in 1974, and Men, Women, and Other Anticlimaxes in 1980. Broyard was a senior editor ofThe New York Times Book Review from 1986 to 1989. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1989 and died in 1990. Intoxicated by My Illness, and Other Writings on Life and Death, containing essays written by Anatole Broyard, appeared in 1991.