Free shipping on orders over $99
A Different Drummer

A Different Drummer

by William Melvin Kelley
Paperback
Publication Date: 30/10/2018

Share This Book:

  $33.25
or 4 easy payments of $8.31 with
afterpay

A lost masterpiece, following in the footsteps of Suite Fran aise, Alone in Berlin and Stoner.

June, 1957. One afternoon, in the backwater town of Sutton, a young black farmer by the name of Tucker Caliban matter-of-factly throws salt on his field, shoots his horse and livestock, sets fire to his house and departs the southern state. And thereafter, the entire African-American population leave with him.

The reaction that follows is told across a dozen chapters, each from the perspective of a different white townsperson. These are boys, girls, men and women; either liberal or conservative, bigoted or sympathetic - yet all of whom are grappling with this spontaneous, collective rejection of subordination.

In 1962, aged just 24, William Melvin Kelley's debut novel A Different Drummer earned him critical comparisons to James Baldwin and William Faulkner. Fifty-five years later, author and journalist Kathryn Schulz happened upon the novel serendipitously and was inspired to write the New Yorker article 'The Lost Giant of American Literature', included as a foreword to this edition.

ISBN:
9781787478039
9781787478039
Category:
Contemporary fiction
Format:
Paperback
Publication Date:
30-10-2018
Publisher:
Quercus Publishing
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Pages:
336
Dimensions (mm):
196x128x26mm
Weight:
0.28kg

"Set to become a publishing sensation."
BBC Front Row

"Simple, timeless, mythic...an astounding achievement...still relevant and powerful today."
Sunday Times

"Black America's lost literary masterpiece."
Observer

"Brilliant...The rare first novel that makes future ones seem both inevitable and exciting."
New Yorker

"Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner."
New York Times

William Melvin Kelley

Born in New York in 1937, William Melvin Kelley was an African-American writer known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America. He was just twenty-four years old when his debut novel, A Different Drummer, was first published in 1962, earning him critical comparisons to William Faulkner and James Baldwin.

Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, Kelley was in 2014 officially credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with coining the political term 'woke,' in a 1962 New York Times article entitled 'If You're Woke You Dig It'. He died in February of 2017, aged 79.

This title is in stock with our overseas supplier and should arrive at our Sydney warehouse within 3 - 5 weeks of you placing an order.

Once received into our warehouse we will despatch it to you with a Shipping Notification which includes online tracking.

Please check the estimated delivery times below for your region, for after your order is despatched from our warehouse:

ACT Metro: 2 working days
NSW Metro: 2 working days
NSW Rural: 2-3 working days
NSW Remote: 2-5 working days
NT Metro: 3-6 working days
NT Remote: 4-10 working days
QLD Metro: 2-4 working days
QLD Rural: 2-5 working days
QLD Remote: 2-7 working days
SA Metro: 2-5 working days
SA Rural: 3-6 working days
SA Remote: 3-7 working days
TAS Metro: 3-6 working days
TAS Rural: 3-6 working days
VIC Metro: 2-3 working days
VIC Rural: 2-4 working days
VIC Remote: 2-5 working days
WA Metro: 3-6 working days
WA Rural: 4-8 working days
WA Remote: 4-12 working days

Reviews

Be the first to review A Different Drummer.