Walter Mosley

Author

• Born: January 12, 1952
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California

Writer

A prolific writer in multiple genres, Mosley serves as a historian whose extensive body of work sheds light on racial, economic, and social discrimination. He is most successful for his detective stories, and his Easy Rawlins series depicts the African American struggle throughout 1940s and post–World War II America.

Area of achievement: Literature

Early Life

Walter Ellis Mosley was born January 12, 1952, to an African American father and Jewish mother. Mosley’s parents brought him up in a household that respected both cultures and passed down stories from both sides of the family in the oral-history tradition.

Living in the predominantly Black and Latino Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, until the age of twelve, and having attended a Black private elementary school (Victory Baptist Day School), Mosley learned early on about his African American heritage. His family and many of his neighbors had roots in the American South, particularly Louisiana, and as a child he had a deep Southern accent. The most influential person in Mosley’s life was his father, Leroy, who instilled in him a sense of autonomy and self-reliance that heavily influenced his outlook and the worlds he created in his writing.

In 1970, after graduating from Alexander Hamilton High School, Mosley entered Goddard College in Vermont. He dropped out but later resumed his education at Johnson State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1977. Deciding not to pursue a doctorate, Mosley settled down with Joy Kellman and moved to Boston and later New York with her. Until the late 1980s Mosley made a living with odd jobs before launching a career as a computer programmer with companies such as IBM and Mobil Oil. It was not until age thirty-eight that Mosley achieved success as a writer, five years after he enrolled in the writing program at City University of New York (CUNY).

Life’s Work

Mosley’s career as a writer began with the 1990 publication of his second manuscript in what would become the Easy Rawlins series of detective novels, Devil in a Blue Dress. His first attempt at a novel, Gone Fishin’, had been rejected by numerous publishers; it was not until Mosley had gained fame as an author that the book was accepted for publication by Black Classic Press in 1997. Devil in a Blue Dress got a popularity boost in 1992 from President Bill Clinton, who said that he was reading the series and named Mosley as a favorite author. The novel received significant acclaim for its realistic view of race relations in the 1940s and won the Shamus Award for Best First Private Investigator Novel and the Crime Writers Association New Blood Dagger Award. A film version, directed by Carl Franklin and starring Denzel Washington, was released in 1995.

Mosley continued the Easy Rawlins series with A Red Death (1991), White Butterfly (1992), Black Betty (1994), A Little Yellow Dog (1996), Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002), Little Scarlet (2004), Cinnamon Kiss (2005), and Blonde Faith (2007). The central character Easy Rawlins, a reluctant African American detective, won praise as a complex figure faced with all manner of challenges. The series spanned a variety of settings and notably used slang and detailed description to weave rich portrayals of society.

In addition to his mysteries Mosley wrote general fiction and science fiction. RL’s Dream (1995), a novel about a beleaguered jazz musician, won the Literary Award of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association in 1996. "The Thief," a short story that appeared in Esquire magazine, won an O. Henry Award in 1995. Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned: The Socrates Fortlow Stories (1997) received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1998 and was also filmed for television under the title Always Outnumbered in that year. His character Socrates Fortlow was brought back for the story collection Walkin' the Dog (1999) and a novel, The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow (2008). Other novels included The Man in My Basement (2004); The Tempest Tales (2008), which formed the basis for The Fall of Heaven (2010), Mosley's first play; Inside a Silver Box (2015); and John Woman (2018). The story collection The Awkward Black Man (2020) earned him the 2021 award for outstanding literary work in the fiction category from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Image Awards.

Mosley continued writing other mysteries as well. His novel Fearless Jones (2001) set the stage for a series starring the title character and Paris Minton, a bookseller that included several sequels. Another series focused on the private investigator Leonid McGill, beginning with the novel The Long Fall (2009) and continuing with Known to Evil (2010), All I Did Was Shoot My Man (2012), And Sometimes I Wonder about You (2015), and Trouble Is What I Do (2020). Easy Rawlins also returned with the books Little Green (2013), Rose Gold (2014), Charcoal Joe (2016), and Blood Grove (2021).

In addition to his creative work, Mosley also wrote nonfiction and worked on community enrichment programs. He served as an artist in residence at New York University’s Africana Studies Institute in 1996, helping the institute implement its Black Genius lecture series in which scholars, artists, and politicians discuss current issues. In the collection Black Genius (1999) and Workin’ on the Chain Gang: Shaking off the Dead Hand of History (2000), Mosley reveals his frustrations with capitalism and its racial and social implications. In 2002 he narrated an English-language version of Middle Passage, a French documentary about the African slave trade, that was released by HBO. Other works of nonfiction included What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (2003), This Year You Write Your Novel (2007), and Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation (2011).

Significance

In addition to his prodigious, popular, and critically acclaimed writings, Mosley helped establish the Publishing Institute at City College at CUNY to help minority students prepare for careers in the publishing world, in turn providing opportunities for writers from underrepresented groups. He served as the president of the Mystery Writers of America and cofounded the Open Book Program within the PEN American Center. With his stories of Black men and their quests for identity, justice, and acceptance, and a belief that Black history is synonymous with American history, Mosley contributed greatly to the portrayal of African American identity in literature. In 2020, the National Book Foundation honored him with its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Bibliography

"Bio." Walter Mosley. Walter Mosley, 2009. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Brady, Owen E., and Derek C. Maus, eds. Finding a Way Home: A Critical Assessment of Walter Mosley’s Fiction. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2008. Print.

Mosley, Walter. "Author Walter Mosley Grew Up in LA But His Writing is Soaked in the South." Interview by Renee Montagne. NPR. NPR, 13 Aug. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2016.

Mosley, Walter. Life Out of Context. New York: Nation, 2006. Print.

"National Book Foundation to Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Walter Mosley." National Book Foundation, Sept. 2020, www.nationalbook.org/national-book-foundation-to-present-lifetime-achievement-award-to-walter-mosley/. Accessed 21 July 2021.

Wilson, Charles E., Jr. Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood, 2003. Print.