A Different Drummer

In 1962, aged just 24, William Melvin Kelley's debut novel A Different Drummer earned him critical comparisons to James Baldwin and William Faulkner. Fifty-five years later, author and journalist Kathryn Schulz happened upon the novel serendipitously and was inspired to write the New Yorker article 'The Lost Giant of American Literature', included as a foreword to this edition. June, 1957. One afternoon, in the backwater town of Sutton, a young black farmer by the name of Tucker Caliban matter-of-factly throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and departs the southern state. And thereafter, the entire African-American population leave with him. The reaction that follows is told across a dozen chapters, each from the perspective of a different white townsperson. These are boys, girls, men and women; either liberal or conservative, bigoted or sympathetic - yet all of whom are grappling with this spontaneous, collective rejection of subordination. A lost masterpiece republished for 2018, A Different Drummer is for readers who have been waiting for the next rediscovered classic.

Product details

• Authors: WILLIAM M KELLEY, William Melvin Kelley
• Publisher: Riverrun
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 30.11.2018
• EAN: 9781787478039
• ISBN: 978-1-78747-803-9
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 163 mm x 196 mm x 20 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; FICTION / Classics, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, FICTION / Southern, Relating to African American people, Modern and contemporary fiction, Civil rights & citizenship, Slavery & abolition of slavery