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Roberta S. Maguire,ed. Conversations with Albert Murray. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1997.167 pp. $17.00.
In recent years, it has become quite customary to refer to Albert Murray with any number of superlalives, such as African American literature's "best kept secret," African American culture's "national treasure," an American generation's "intellectual Godfather," or simply as contemporary America's "unsquarest person." Yet for all the praise that friends and admirers heap upon him, Albert Murray has not become a household name that ranks with Ralph Ellison, Romare Bearden, Alvin Ailey, or Wynton Marsalis, fellow artists with whom Murray is frequently compared. With the publication of Conversations with Albert Murray, however, literary enthusiasts and cultural devotees can now become more familiar with the quintessential modernist writer and cultural critic whose musings on the jazz trope have transformed our understanding and appreciation of African American literature and culture.
Conversations with Albert Murray is part of the Literary Conversations Series produced by the University Press of Mississippi. The volume brings together previously published interviews with the author and critical articles on his works with an introduction, a chronology, and a recent, previously unpublished interview by the editor. The selections in this collection range from early short reviews of Murray's work to in-depth contemporary examinations of...