Walter Mosley

Mosley, Walter (b. 1952), novelist. Born in 1952 to Leroy and Ella Mosley, Walter Ellis Mosley grew up in South Central Los Angeles, the setting for his first four novels. An intelligent and thoughtful young man but an indifferent student, Mosley eventually earned a degree in political science from Johnson State College in Vermont, then worked as a computer programmer for several years before enrolling in a creative writing program at City College New York. Lauded for his perfectly inflected dialogue, his simple but elegant prose, and his vivid characters, Golden Dagger prize-winner Walter Mosley's primary contributions to the detective genre are his hero, Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins, and his expansion of the mystery novel to chronicle African American social history.

Easy Rawlins is a working-class man, a reluctant private eye, prone to sleuthing mistakes and without the usual friends in the profession to ease his way. Easy succeeds because of his common sense, his integrity, and his community ties. Based upon Mosley's father and several acquaintances and created as a realistic black male hero, one who has “flaws that have to be overcome,” Easy is divorced, has financial worries, and gets too involved with his clients. Easy has two adopted children: Jesus, a Mexican boy whose muteness testifies to his trauma as a child prostitute before Easy rescued him, and Feather, whose grandfather killed her mother because Feather's father was black. Easy wants what most men want: a house, a good income, a safe and happy family life; but he is also streetwise and capable of cruel vengeance. Easy's best friend, Raymond Alexander, better known as Mouse, is much less admirable and much more violent. Mouse does not hesitate to shoot a hogtied man first in the groin then the head in order to get a reluctant witness to provide information, and several times he almost shoots Easy over trifles. Mosley presents both as black male heroes. “Black male heroes are not sports stars or movies stars,” Mosley asserts. Black male heroes are like Easy, “the guys who get up and go to work every day” and like Mouse who “demands and wins, at whatever cost, ultimate respect.”

This unlikely duo dominates Walter Mosley's first four of a series recording experiences from post-World War II, when southern blacks optimistically arrived in southern California seeking and finding living wages and livable communities, to the present, which appears to offer less of both for most. Despite due attention to racism, discrimination, corruption, and other poisoners of dreams, Mosley's emphasis is upon resilience in the face of difficulties. As Malcolm Jones, Jr., says, “Easy Rawlins never whines.”

Devil in a Blue Dress (1990) introduces Easy Rawlins, an intelligent and thoughtful veteran whose recent firing combined with an impending mortgage payment convinced him in 1948 to take the job of locating the missing Daphne Monet. I (1991) finds Easy in 1953 working as a janitor for and secretly buying the Magnolia Street Apartments when IRS troubles force him to spy on members of the First African Baptist Church, a decision that leads to his own investigation for murder. White Butterfly (1992) revolves around serial killings in 1956 that fail to interest law enforcement agents until Cyndi Starr, a stripper known as the “White Butterfly,” who was also a white UCLA coed, is killed. In Black Betty (1994), it is 1961 and Easy, now forty-one years old, needs money to save his proposed neighborhood shopping mall from exploitative but politically powerful competitors. Easy discovers that the missing housekeeper a wealthy Beverly Hills family hires him to find is the same Elizabeth Eady he had a crush on when he was nine years old. Mosley plans to continue the saga until Easy is about seventy years old; but the protagonist of his current project is a jazz musician who travels back in time to study with bluesman Robert Johnson.

Mosley's popularity was not hurt by being named as President Bill Clinton's favorite writer. Readers also respond to his deliberate echoes of Raymond Chandler and Chester Himes, and reviewers compare him to John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, Richard Wright, and Ruldoph Fisher. Both Valerie Wilson Wesley and Eleanor Brand have black single parent detectives, but they are female. Gar Anthony Haywood and Clifford Mason preceded Mosley with politically aware black private eyes. Playwright August Wilson and novelist John Edgar Wideman have created series that attempt to write ordinary black men into American social history. Walter Mosley stands alone, however, in his acclaimed combination of these and other elements as never before.[See also Poinsettia Jackson.]

Bibliography

• Kristina L. Knotts, “Walter Mosley,” in Contemporary African American Novelists, ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson, 1999, pp. 350–354.
• Robert Crooks, “From the Far Side of the Urban Fiction: The Detectives of Chester Himes and Walter Mosley” in Race-ing Representation, eds. Myrsiades, Kostos and Linda Myrsiades, pp. 175–200.
• Stephen Soitos, The Blues Detective: A Study of African American Detective Fiction, 1996.—Frances Smith Foster

writer; computer programmer

Personal Information

Born on January 12, 1952, in Los Angeles, CA; son of LeRoy (a school custodian) and Ella (a school personnel clerk) Mosley; married Joy Kellman (a dancer and choreographer), 1987.
Education: Attended Goddard College, 1971; Johnson State College, B.A., 1977; attended writing program at City College of New York, 1985-89.
Memberships: TransAfrica; National Book Foundation; Poetry Society of America; Manhattan Theater Club.

Career

Worked as a computer consultant for Mobil Oil, and as a computer programmer, potter, and caterer; became full-time writer, 1986-.

Life's Work

Walter Mosley has broken new ground as a mystery writer by incorporating issues of race into novels that stand on their own as gripping detective fiction. His novels are all written from an African American perspective. He has also branched out into the areas of science fiction and social commentary.

Critics have praised Mosley's writing for its realistic portrayal of street life in African American neighborhoods of post-World War II Los Angeles. Sara M. Lomax wrote in American Visions that Mosley has "a special talent for layering time and place with words and ideas." Library Journal's review of A Red Death noted, "As before, Mosley's inclusion of life in Watts, contemporary social attitudes, and colloquial speech contribute to the excellence and authenticity of plot and character portrayal."

Much of Mosley's success has been due to the powerful recurring character of Ezekiel ("Easy") Rawlins, one of the most innovative private investigators to appear in fiction. Unlike many detectives who populate the pages of hard-boiled prose, Rawlins is a multidimensional character who stumbled into his sleuthing career as a means to pay mounting debts. Mosley has used Rawlins to expose the problems of getting by in a world where only a thin line lies between crime and business as usual. As Christopher Hitchens said in Vanity Fair, "Rawlins is more of a fixer than a hustler, a kind of accidental detective who gets pulled into cases because of his reluctantly acquired street smarts and savoir faire." D. J. R. Bruckner added in the New York Times that Easy Rawlins "is trapped into becoming a private detective, and the way he is trapped gives Mr. Mosley an opportunity to raise scores of moral questions in a novel of little more than 200 pages."

Walter Mosley was born in southeastern Los Angeles in 1952 and grew up in Watts and the Pico-Fairfax district. His father was an African American from the deep South, and his mother a white woman of Jewish descent whose family emigrated from Eastern Europe. This unique African American/Jewish heritage made prejudice a major topic in the household. An only child, Mosley grew up hearing about the woes of life for African Americans in the South, as well as the horrors of anti-Semitism across the Atlantic. However, he was also regaled by colorful accounts of partying and carrying on among his African American relatives, along with tales of czars in old Russia.

After earning a bachelor's degree at Johnson State College in 1977, Mosley drifted for a number of years in various jobs, even working as a potter and caterer. He and Joy Kellman, a dancer and choreographer, moved to New York City in 1982 and were married in 1987. The parents of Kellman, who is white and Jewish, reportedly didn't speak to their daughter for five years after meeting Mosley.

Mosley settled down into a career as a computer programmer in the 1980s, but his work left him unfulfilled. Meanwhile, he read voraciously, including mysteries by Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Ross MacDonald and existential novels such as The Stranger by Albert Camus. This blend of suspense and philosophy served him well in the mysteries he would later write.

Novel Triggered Interest in Writing

According to a profile in People magazine, Mosley's decision to become a writer was strongly influenced by his reading of The Color Purple by Alice Walker. That book rekindled the youthful urge to write that he had lost and made him feel that he could create the same kind of prose. He began writing feverishly on nights, weekends, and whenever he could find time. Intent on devoting himself totally to his craft, Mosley quit his computer programming job in the mid-eighties and enrolled at the City College of New York to study with Frederic Tuten, head of the school's writing program. While in the program he also received instruction from writers William Matthews and Edna O'Brien.

In 1989 Mosley showed Devil in a Blue Dress, which he had first written as a screenplay, to his writing teacher. The teacher showed the book to his agent, who sold it to the W. W. Norton publishing company. When the novel came out in 1990, the New York Times said that it "marks the debut of a talented author." Rawlins's reappearance a year later in A Red Death caused Publishers Weekly to theorize that "Mosley ... may well be in the process of creating a genre classic." White Butterfly was also greeted by critical acclaim, with Cosmopolitan saying that Mosley "brings it all so thoroughly, sizzlingly to life." The author's reputation soared when Bill Clinton said during his 1992 U.S. presidential campaign that Mosley was his favorite mystery writer.

Father's Background a Major Influence

Many characters in the Easy Rawlins novels are based on the experiences of Mosley's father, with similarities between LeRoy Mosley and Easy Rawlins especially apparent. After being treated like a hero abroad during World War II, LeRoy Mosley was dismayed to find that he was still a second class citizen back in the States. This disillusionment was also felt by veteran Easy Rawlins in Devil in a Blue Dress. However, the war made it clear to Rawlins that the white man was not much different from himself. Early in the novel, the character ruminates: "I had spent five years with white men, and women, from Africa to Italy, through Paris, and into the Fatherland itself. I ate with them and slept with them, and I killed enough blue-eyed young men to know that they were just as afraid to die as I was."

In a commentary in the Los Angeles Times, Mosley asserted that "black soldiers learned from World War II; they learned how to dream about freedom." LeRoy Mosley's dream of freedom took him to California, where endless jobs and opportunities were rumored to be waiting for everyone, including African Americans. In the Los Angeles Times, Mosley described the Los Angeles of Easy Rawlins as "a place where a black man can dream but he has to keep his wits about him. Easy lives among the immigrants from the western South. He dreams of owning property and standing on an equal footing with his white peers. Deep in his mind, he is indoctrinated with the terror of Southern racism. In his everyday life he faces the subtle, and not so subtle, inequalities of the American color line."

Racism an Ever-Present Theme

Similar to the canon of Chester Himes, an African American author who wrote Harlem-based crime novels in the 1940s and 1950s, Mosley's works have consistently addressed social and racial issues. Drawing on his father's life and his own as a close observer of the Watts riots during the 1960s, Mosley shows in his books how racism infects the lives of inner city African Americans. Double standards abound in Devil in a Blue Dress, in which a white man hires Rawlins to find a woman known to hang out in African American jazz clubs. Easy was chosen because he was African American and regarded as a bridge into a world where the white man dare not go. In White Butterfly, the police show a keen interest in the case of a murdered white cocktail waitress--after basically ignoring the murders of a series of black waitresses that occurred earlier.

Mosley has also tapped his African American/Jewish perspective to deal with Jewish suffering as perceived by African Americans. In Devil in a Blue Dress, two Jewish liquor store owners in the ghetto cause Easy Rawlins to remember when his unit broke open the gates of a Nazi extermination camp. This recollection leads to an understanding of similarities in the oppression suffered by African Americans in America and Jews abroad.

The author has provided a loud voice on racial strife in the real world as well. He was particularly angered over the racially motivated riots that occurred in Los Angeles in 1992. The rioting was triggered by the "not guilty" verdicts handed down in the first trial of four white Los Angeles police officers involved in the brutal beating African American motorist Rodney King. Mosley was outraged that racial tensions had led to blatant violence before people started to address the problems in urban African American communities. As he stated in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, "The rioters sent out a message that is louder than a billion pleas over the past 400 years of beating, burning and death."

Moral Issues Raised Frequently

Mosley's novels have made it clear that morality cannot be judged the same for African Americans as it is for whites. The author wrote in the Los Angeles Times that "Easy tries to walk a moral line in a world where he is not treated equally by the law.... He's a man who, finding himself with dark skin, has decided that he's going to live his life and do what's right, in that order." Mosley has used Easy's moral flexibility to force his hero back into the private eye business, such as in A Red Death when Rawlins bought some buildings with stolen money. When the IRS threatened to look into his finances, Easy reluctantly agreed to spy on a suspected Jewish communist for an FBI man in exchange for protection from the taxman. As Mosley said in the Los Angeles Times, "In Easy's world ... you have to know what the law is but you also have to understand that the reality might be different."

Mosley has found Greenwich Village, a noted haven for people in the arts, to be a good psychological base for him. "It's hard to be conspicuous here," he was quoted as saying in Vanity Fair. While he may not want be noticed, his writing has certainly put him on the literary map. Mosley is an important voice in a new brand of African American fiction that has spawned memorable characters and plots. As Charles Champlin wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, "Mosley, who ... knows Watts like an after-hours bartender, creates characters--men, women and children--who are vivid, individual and as honest as home movies."

In 1994, Mosley published another installment in the Easy Rawlins series entitled Black Betty. The novel opens with Rawlins facing both the collapse of his real estate business, and the fact that his wife and daughter have walked out on him. In the midst of this turmoil, he is asked by a white private eye to find Elizabeth Eady, a seductive former housekeeper who is known as Black Betty. As Rawlins searches for Black Betty, he must also prevent his recently paroled friend, Mouse Alexander, from finding and exacting revenge on those who sent him to prison. Reviews of Black Betty were quite favorable. Kirkus Reviews called Black Betty, "Mosley's finest work yet," while a reviewer for Publishers Weekly praised the novel's "quietly emotive prose," and an ending that "fully satisfies." Barry Gifford, writing in the New York Times Book Review, remarked that "nobody will ever accuse Walter Mosley of lacking heart....his words prowl around the page before they pounce, knocking you not so much upside the head as around the body, where you feel them the longest."

Departed From Easy Rawlins

Mosley's 1995 novel, RL's Dream, marked a departure from the Easy Rawlins mystery series. This novel tells the story of Atwater "Soupspoon" Wise, an aged and dying blues guitar player who is facing eviction from his New York apartment. He is soon befriended by an alcoholic white Southerner named Kiki Waters, who takes Wise into her home and cares for him. Wise longs to relive his glory days, and recalls to Waters about his struggles with racism and the time he played with a legendary Delta blues singer named Robert "RL" Johnson. As their friendship develops, the two share their individual stories, relive the pain of the past, and learn to heal their emotional wounds. Digby Diehl of Playboy noted that Mosley's mystery novels "don't prepare you for the emotional force of RL's Dream. Mosley mixes the nightmares of Soup's past with the immediate anguish of poverty, chemotherapy, and aging. The result is harsh, uplifting and unforgettable."

Following the release of RL's Dream, Mosley published another Easy Rawlins mystery, A Little Yellow Dog, in 1996. In the novel, Rawlins is working as a custodian at a junior high school. One of the teachers at the school, Idabell Holland, asks Rawlins to care for her little dog after Holland's husband allegedly threatens to kill it. After Rawlins and Holland have a brief romantic encounter, she is found murdered in the front seat of Rawlins's car. Holland's husband is also found murdered, and Rawlins discovers that he was part of a drug smuggling ring. Rawlins is suspected of the murders, and is forced to try to clear his name. Kirkus Reviews called the novel's plot "only average for this celebrated series." Bill Ott, writing for Booklist, praised A Little Yellow Dog as "a superb novel in a superb series."

In 1997, Mosley published the novel Gone Fishin'. This novel is a prequel to the other Easy Rawlins novels, which take place during Rawlins's adult years. Gone Fishin' opens in 1939, when Rawlins and his friend, Mouse Alexander, are only 19-years-old. The novel does not have an intricate plot, but focuses primarily on Rawlins and Alexander as they come of age. Bill Kent of the New York Times Book Review remarked that Gone Fishin' will "disappoint anyone expecting another of his [Mosley's] atmospheric whodunits."

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, which was published in late 1997, presented another departure from Mosley's Easy Rawlins series. The book consists of 14 stories which revolve around the character of Socrates Fortlow. Fortlow is an ex-convict who has been released from prison after serving 27 years for killing two acquaintances. He lives in an abandoned building in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, and supports himself by delivering groceries for a supermarket. Throughout all 14 stories, Fortlow grapples with philosophical questions of morality in a world that is riddled with racism, crime, and poverty. Sven Birkerts, in a review of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned in the New York Times Book Review, remarked that the book delves into "the implications of moral action in a society that has lost all purchase on the spirit of the law." Birkerts also noted that the book's 14 stories "incorporate the Platonic dialogues as a kind of ghost melody; signature strains of the classic are vamped up in the rough demotic of present-day Watts." In 1998, actor Laurence Fishburne starred in a film version of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned on HBO.

Published First Science Fiction Novel

Mosley broke new ground in 1998 with the release of his first science fiction novel, Blue Light. Set in San Francisco during the 1960s, the plot focuses on a group of people who are struck by an extraterrestrial blue light. Some who are touched by the light die or go insane, while others are given supernatural abilities. Those with supernatural abilities are stalked by the Gray Man, an evil entity who seeks their destruction. Critical reviews of Blue Light were mixed. Patrick O'Kelley of amazon.com called the novel "somber and violent, bizarre and oddly reverent", but added that Blue Light marked "a promising new direction for Mosley." In the New York Times Book Review, Mel Watkins remarked that "for those readers accustomed to the gut-real encounters, sharp dialogue and quirky perceptions that enliven the first-person narrations of Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries...the surreal nature of Blue Light may be a disappointment."

Mosley published the novel, Walkin' the Dog, in late 1999. This novel signaled the return of Socrates Fortlow, the philosophical ex-convict that Mosley first introduced in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. In Walkin' the Dog, Fortlow is faced with challenges such as being evicted from his home, avoiding confrontations with police, and caring for his two-legged dog, Killer. Although Fortlow is trying to live an honest life, he remains burdened by the sins of his past. Despite his difficult circumstances, he tries to face each day with determination and hope. Walkin' the Dog received generally favorable reviews. Writing for the New York Times Book Review, Adam Goodheart noted that "in prose as plain and gritty as asphalt, Mosley...adeptly builds a feeling of urgency and suspense around even seemingly ordinary episodes of his protagonist's life."

Voiced Social Concerns

In early 2000, Mosley published a social commentary entitled Workin' the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History. In this book, he challenges the American people to find imaginative and creative solutions to the political, social, racial, and economic problems within society. Among other things, he urges his readers to turn away from rampant consumerism and consumption, and cautions against overexposure to mass media. Mosley encourages readers to learn from the lessons and struggles of the African American experience, and envision a brighter future. Anthony O. Edmonds of the Library Journal called the book "a manifesto", and remarked that Mosley "offers little new or practical." In Booklist, Mary Carroll noted that "free market fanatics will hate this book", but believed that readers who are "receptive to a progressive critique of the religion of the market will value Mosley's creative contribution."

Walter Mosley has demonstrated a willingness to expand his horizons beyond the Easy Rawlins mystery series into the realms of science fiction and social commentary. He has actively used his popularity and influence to address the economic and social concerns of the day. As Emory Holmes II said in Los Angeles Magazine, Mosley has become "a rich and increasingly strident voice in publishing."

Awards

John Creasey Memorial Award and Shamus Award, both for outstanding mystery writing; Devil in a Blue Dress was nominated for an Edgar for best first novel by the Mystery Writers of America, 1990; winner of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association's Literary Award for RL's Dream, 1996; winner of the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award for Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, 1998; winner of the TransAfrica International Literary Prize.

Works

Selected writings

• Devil in a Blue Dress, 1990.
• A Red Death, 1991.
• White Butterfly, 1992.
• Black Betty, 1994.
• RL's Dream, 1995.
• A Little Yellow Dog, 1996.
• Gone Fishin', 1997.
• Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, 1997.
• Blue Light, 1998.
• Walkin' the Dog, 1999.
• Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking Off the Dead Hand of History, 2000.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• American Visions, April/May 1992, pp. 32-34.
• Booklist, May 1, 1996, p. 1469; January 1, 2000, p. 840.
• California, August 1990, p. 115.
• Cosmopolitan, July 1991, p. 28; July 1992, p. 30.
• Detroit Free Press, November 17, 1991, p. 6.
• Essence, January 1991, p. 32; October 1992, p. 50.
• Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 1994; April 15, 1996.
• Library Journal, June 1, 1991, p. 200; March 15, 1992, p. 68; February 1, 2000, p. 105.
• Los Angeles Magazine, November 1998, p. 32.
• Los Angeles Times, May 5, 1992, pp. B7, E1, E5; May 14, 1992, p. 6.
• Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 14, 1991. pp. 1-2, 9.
• New Statesman & Society, April 19, 1991, p. 37.
• Newsweek, July 7, 1990, p. 65.
• New York Times, September 4, 1990, pp. C13, C16.
• New York Times Book Review, August 5, 1990, p. 29; June 5, 1994; January 26, 1997; November 15, 1998; November 7, 1999.
• People, September 7, 1992, pp. 105-106.
• Playboy, October 1995, p. 34.
• Publishers Weekly, May 17, 1991, p. 57; April 25, 1994.
• Vanity Fair, February 1993, pp. 46, 48, 50.

• Additional information for this profile was obtained from amazon.com.

— Ed Decker and David G. Oblender

Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley
Born	January 12, 1952 (age 58) Los Angeles, California

Walter Ellis Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is a prominent American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. He has written a series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles; they are perhaps his most popular works.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Personal life 1.2 Career 2 Legacy and honors 3 Works 3.1 Easy Rawlins mysteries 3.2 Fearless Jones mysteries 3.3 Leonid McGill mysteries 3.4 Science Fiction 3.5 Socrates Fortlow books 3.6 For Young Adults 3.7 Other fiction 3.8 Erotica 3.9 Nonfiction 3.10 Graphic Novel 4 Films and television 5 Criticism and Scholarship 6 References 7 External links

Biography

Personal life

Mosley was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Ella (née Slatkin), a personnel clerk, and Leroy Mosley, a school librarian.^[1][2] His father was African-American and his mother Jewish.^[3][4] He lives in New York City.

Career

Mosley has written more than 33 books in a variety of categories, including non-mystery fiction, afrofuturist science fiction and non-fiction politics. His work has been translated into 21 languages. Mosley's fame increased in 1992 when then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton, a fan of murder mysteries, named Mosley as one of his favorite authors.

Two of his books have been made into films or television specials. His first published book, Devil in a Blue Dress, was the basis of a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington.

The world premiere of his first play, The Fall of Heaven, was staged at the Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati, Ohio, in January, 2010.

Mosley is on the Board of Trustees for Goddard College. He has served on the board of directors of the National Book Awards.

Legacy and honors

• Anisfield Wolf Award, for works that increase the appreciation and understanding of race in America.
• Finalist for the NAACP Award in Fiction
• 1996 - Black Caucus of the American Library Association's Literary Award for RL's Dream
• 1996 - O. Henry Award for a Socrates Fortlow story.
• 2005 - "Risktaker Award" from the Sundance Institute for both his creative and activist efforts.
• 2006 - First recipient of the Carl Brandon Society Parallax Award for his young adult novel 47.
• Mosley was awarded an honorary doctorate from the City College of New York.

Works

Easy Rawlins mysteries

• Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
• A Red Death (1991)
• White Butterfly (1992)
• Black Betty (1994)
• A Little Yellow Dog (1996)
• Gone Fishin' (1997)
• Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002)
• Six Easy Pieces (2003)
• Little Scarlet (2004)
• Cinnamon Kiss (2005)
• Blonde Faith (2007)

Fearless Jones mysteries

• Fearless Jones (2001)
• Fear Itself (2003)
• Fear of the Dark (2006)

Leonid McGill mysteries

• The Long Fall (2009)

Science Fiction

• Blue Light (1998)
• Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (2001)
• The Wave (2005)

Socrates Fortlow books

• Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997)
• Walkin' the Dog (1999)
• The Right Mistake (2008)

For Young Adults

• 47 (2005)

Other fiction

• RL's Dream (1995)
• The Man in My Basement (2004)
• Walking the Line (2005), a novella in the Transgressions series
• Fortunate Son (2006)
• The Tempest Tales (2008)

Erotica

• Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel (2006)
• Diablerie (2007)

Nonfiction

• Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking off the Dead Hand of History (2000)
• What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace (2003)
• Life Out of Context: Which Includes a Proposal for the Non-violent Takeover of the House of Representatives (2006)
• For Authors, Fragile Ideas Need Loving Every Day
• This Year You Write Your Novel (2007)

Graphic Novel

• Maximum Fantastic Four (2005,with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)

Films and television

• Fallen Angels: Fearless (1995) (TV)
• Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
• Always Outnumbered (1998) (TV)

Criticism and Scholarship

• BERGER, Roger A., ‘‘The Black Dick’: Race, Sexuality, and Discourse in the L.A. Novels of Walter Mosley’, in African American Review 31 (Summer 1997): 281–94.
• BERRETTINI, Mark, ‘Private Knowledge, Public Space: Investigation and Navigation in Devil in a Blue Dress’, in Cinema Journal 39 (Fall 1999): 74–89.
• FINE, David, ed., Los Angeles in Fiction: A Collection of Essays from James M. Cain to Walter Mosley (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1995).
• FRIEBURGER, William, ‘James Ellroy, Walter Mosley, and the Politics of the Los Angeles Crime Novel’, in Clues: A Journal of Detection 17 (Fall–Winter 1996): 87–104.
• GRUESSER, John C., "An Un-Easy Relationship: Walter Mosley's Signifyin(g) Detective and the Black Community," in Confluences: Postcolonialism, African American Literary Studies, and the Black Atlantic (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 58-72.
• LENNARD, John, Walter Mosley, Devil in a Blue Dress (Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007 [Genre Fiction Sightlines]).
• WESLEY, Marilyn C., ‘Power and Knowledge in Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress’, in African American Review 35 (Spring 2001): 103–16.
• WILSON, Charles E., Jr., Walter Mosley: A Critical Companion (Westport, CT, & London: Greenwood Press, 2003 [Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers])

References

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Walter Mosley

1. ^ Walter Mosley Biography (1952-)
2. ^ http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/news/pdf/mday-new-06-NYTIMES.pdf
3. ^ crimetime.co.uk
4. ^ Online NewsHour: The Chain Gang- April 6, 2000

External links

• Mosley's official website
• Riverhead Books (Walter Mosley's Publisher)
• Powell Books interview of Walter Mosley

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)