E. Lynn Harris, the best-selling author of novels that addressed questions of identity and sexuality among black men, has died, his publicist told The Associated Press. He was 54.Windy City Media Group:
According to his official biography at his Web site, Mr. Harris was born in Flint, Mich. and raised in Little Rock, Ark. At the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, he was the school’s first black male Razorbacks cheerleader and was a lifelong fan of the team. He sold computers for a living until he self-published his first novel, “Invisible Life,” in 1991; it was picked up by Anchor Books in 1994, spawning a prolific writing career spanning ten more novels, from “Just As I Am” in 1994, to “Basketball Jones,” published in January, as well as a 2004 memoir, “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted.”
In a review of Mr. Harris’s 2006 novel “I Say a Little Prayer” in The New York Times Book Review, Troy Patterson wrote that Mr. Harris “has helped bring taboo topics — like closeted black men indulging their sexuality ‘on the down low’ — into mainstream conversation.” From his debut with “Invisible Life”, Mr. Patterson wrote that Mr. Harris offered a writing style that “was smoothly paced, and the prose occasionally opened up on Fitzgerald-lite moments of sparkling sentiment.”
E. Lynn Harris ( pictured ) , a former Chicagoan and author of best-selling books about Black gay life, has died at age 54, according to his publicist. He was on a tour for his new novel, Basketball Jones.Read More...
Laura Gilmore said he died July 24 at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. The cause of death is still unknown.
Harris was a pioneer in Black gay fiction, once selling his books out of the back of his car when no one would pick up his works for mainstream distribution. Born in Flint, Mich., and raised in Little Rock, Ark., Harris spent some time in Chicago before hitting it big as an author.
