Albert Murray (1916–2013)

Albert Murray was born in Nokomis, Alabama, in 1916. He was educated at Tuskegee Institute, where he later taught literature & directed the college theater. He is the author of many works of fiction & nonfiction, including "The Seven League Boots", "The Blue Devils of Nada" & "The Spyglass Tree". He lives in New York City. (Publisher Provided) Albert Murray was born in 1916 and grew up in Magazine Point, Alabama. He received a bachelor's degree from the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1939. During World War II, he served in the Air Force and received a master's degree from New York University after returning to the U.S. He was a novelist and critic who believed that blues and jazz were not primitive sounds, but sophisticated art. He wrote a series of autobiographical novels, a nonfiction narrative entitled South to a Very Old Place, an acclaimed history of music entitled Stomping the Blues, and several books of criticism including The Blue Devils of Nada: A Contemporary American Approach to Aesthetic Statement. In 2000, the Modern Library released Trading Twelves, a collection of letters between Murray and fellow author Ralph Ellison. He died on August 18, 2013 at the age of 97. (Bowker Author Biography) — biography from Stomping the Blues… (mais)