Roark Bradford
Roark Bradford was an American humorist, novelist, short-story writer, and journalist born in Lauderdale County, Tennessee, who became known for his works that depicted rural African American life. Raised on a cotton plantation, he was the eighth child in a large family with deep roots in Southern history. His early interactions with the African American community on the plantation greatly influenced his writing, which often featured exaggerated dialects and themes related to religion and cultural expression. After serving in World War I, Bradford transitioned from journalism to creative writing, with notable works including "Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun," which inspired the Pulitzer Prize-winning play "The Green Pastures." He served in the military again during World War II and later took a teaching position at Tulane University. Bradford's portrayal of African American culture and language was significant during his time, although his work has been critiqued for being sentimental and sometimes racially insensitive in light of evolving literary standards and the emergence of authentic African American voices during the Harlem Renaissance. He passed away in 1948 due to complications from a disease contracted while in the Navy.
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Roark Bradford
- Born: August 21, 1896
- Birthplace: Lauderdale County, Tennessee
- Died: November 13, 1948
- Place of death: New Orleans, Louisiana
Biography
Roark Bradford, a white humorist, novelist, short-story writer, and journalist, was born in Lauderdale County, Tennessee, and raised on a cotton plantation in the Nankipoo-Knob Creek area. He was the eighth of eleven children of a family that was prominent in white colonial and Southern history. As a young person, he was strongly influenced by the African Americans who worked on his family’s plantation and with whom he attended church. He closely observed their lives, their customs, and their speech patterns, and he drew on his early experiences to create his fiction.
Bradford received his education at home, in local public schools, and at the University of California. He volunteered for military service at the beginning of World War I and served as an artillery officer to the Panama Canal Zone. Following his discharge from the service in 1920, Bradford worked as a journalist for publications in Georgia and Louisiana and eventually became Sunday editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
In 1926, he left the field of journalism to devote himself to creative writing. His short stories, novels, and plays typically depicted rural African Americans and employed a somewhat exaggerated dialect. His collection of biblical fantasy stories, Ol’ Man Adam an’ His Chillun (1928), which playwright Marc Connelly adapted into a 1930 hit production, The Green Pastures, ran for seventy-three weeks in New York and won a Pulitzer Prize.
In World War II, Bradford again volunteered to serve in the military, acting as a lieutenant in the United States Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. In 1946, he accepted a visiting lectureship in the English Department of Tulane University. While serving in French West Africa with the Navy in 1943, Bradford contracted amebiasis; he died of complications from this disease in New Orleans on November 13, 1948.
As a creative writer, Bradford pursued his lifelong interest in the culture and language of southern African Americans. He observed that African Americans altered the English spoken by whites and created a beautiful and rhythmic language of their own. He also appreciated black music for its expressive character. Bradford’s fiction often focused on African American religion; he drew on his childhood memories of African American ministers in stories that often pitted a good-natured God against an equally good-natured Satan. His stories and novels sold well in his day but increasingly were considered racist and sentimental. His decline in popularity coincided with the increasing visibility of African American writers during the Harlem Renaissance, which brought authentic black voices to black literature.