James Purdy: August Portrait of the Month

James Purdy, 1987

Born and raised in Ohio, James Purdy (1914-2009) earned a masters degree in English from the University of Chicago. He frequented the underground salon of the painter Gertrude Abercrombie, where he became acquainted with such jazz legends as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. His knowledge of the African-American Chicago jazz scene informed his early work, and he developed a style of indigenous magic realism, as well as a use of vernacular admired by Langston Hughes. His work often dealt with outsiders—women, Native Americans, blacks, and homosexuals far from the typical urban centers of gay experience. His best known works include Malcolm (1959), Eustace Chisholm and the Works (1967), and In a Shallow Grave (1976).