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Leon Richard Forrest (January 8, 1937 – November 6, 1997) was an African-American novelist who taught at Northwestern University from 1973 until his death. His four major novels used mythology, history, and humor to explore "Forrest County," a fictional world that resembled the south side of Chicago where Forrest grew up. After his death, the Washington Post called Forrest "one of the best-kept secrets of contemporary African-American fiction -- and an acquired taste." [1]

Biography

Forrest was born into a middle-class family in Chicago. His mother was Catholic and from New Orleans, while his father's family was Baptist. Forrest was raised in the former.[2] His paternal great-grandmother had a role in his early upbringing. Forrest later attended a racially integrated high school after winning an award, but he was a generally mediocre student except for writing. His parents divorced in 1956; his mother remarried, and the couple opened a liquor store.

Forrest attended Wendell Phillips grade school and Hyde Park High School.[3] He then attended Wilson Junior College for a year, and then took classes at Roosevelt University and the University of Chicago before dropping out, leaving to serve as a Public Information Officer in the military.[4] After leaving the service, he returned to the University of Chicago and worked for the Catholic Interracial Council's Speakers Bureau. In 1969, he began working for Muhammad Speaks, a Nation of Islam newspaper. Forrest would become the last non-Muslim editor of the paper.

His first novel, There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, was published in 1973, and included an introduction from Ralph Ellison. Nobel Prize Laureate Toni Morrison served as publisher's editor for There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden, and his next two novels The Bloodworth Orphans, and Two Wings to Veil My Face.[5] These three novels were known as the Forest County Trilogy.[6] He cited Charlie Parker, Dylan Thomas, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill, Ralph Ellison, and his parents' religions as inspiration.

He joined the creative writing and literature staff of Northwestern University in 1973,[6] and from 1985 to 1994, he headed their African-American Studies department.[7] His last novel, Divine Days, was modeled on Ulysses by James Joyce.[8] A novel over 1,100 pages long, Divine Days was called "the War and Peace of African-American literature" by noted scholar and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.[9]

He died of cancer in Evanston, Illinois at age 60.[6] Meteor in the Madhouse, a series of connected novellas was published posthumously in 2001, his widow Marianne Forrest serving as literary executor. The Washington Post review said Meteor in the Madhouse will be "regarded as a major event" and a "significant landmark."[10]

In 2013, Forrest was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.[11]

References and further reading

• Eig, Jonathan (15 April 2011), "Bound for Glory", Chicago Magazine
• Williams, Dana A., ed. (2007). Conversations with Leon Forrest. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781578069897. Interviews with Forrest on his work.
• Williams, Dana A. (2005). "In the Light of Likeness--Transformed": The Literary Art of Leon Forrest. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. ISBN 0814209947.

Major fiction

• There is a Tree More Ancient than Eden (Random House, 1973)
• The Bloodworth Orphans (Random House, 1977)
• Two Wings to Veil My Face (Asphodel, 1984)
• Divine Days (Another Chicago Press, 1992)
• Relocations of the Spirit: Collected Essays (Asphodel, 1994)
• Meteor in the Madhouse (Northwestern University, 2001)

References

External links

• Leon Forrest Papers, Northwestern University Archives, Evanston, Illinois
• Guide to the Leon Forrest (1937-1997) Papers 1952/1998 UNCAP (Uncovering Chicago Archives Project) guide to the Northwestern Leon Forrest archive.
• Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
• Interview with Leon Forrest (fairly extensive)

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