Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: A Biography (greenwood Biographies) [Hardcover]

This full-length biography explores the multifacetedand altogether fascinatinglife, opinions, and accomplishments of African American scholar and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: A Biographyis the first comprehensive volume about a man hailed as one of America's most influential scholars. Tracing Gates's life from his West Virginia birth, the book follows him through his undergraduate education at Yale and then to Cambridge, where he became the first African American to receive a doctorate. His current activities as a Harvard University professor, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, and editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com, a daily, online magazine focusing on issues of interest to the African American community, are explored as well.

The biography also provides insights into Gates's groundbreaking work as a critic, scholar, and author, probing his wide-ranging interests, his many accomplishments, and his invaluable revelations about the contributions of African Americans to the nation's literature and history. Most important, the book provides readers with a fuller understanding of African American history and literatureand of the nature of today's racial politics.

Series Foreword
Introduction
Timeline: Events in the Life of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Chapter 1 Sepia Time
Chapter 2 School Days
Chapter 3 Directions to Destiny
Chapter 4 A Quest for Identity
Chapter 5 New Directions
Chapter 6 Taking Back the Past
Chapter 7 The Literary Archaeologist
Chapter 8 Building a Dream
Chapter 9 Academostar
Chapter 10 You Can't Do Everything
Selected Bibliography
Index