Reluctant Activist: The Spiritual Life and Art of John Howard Griffin

Robert Bonazzi

Reluctant Activist: The Spiritual Life and Art of John Howard Griffin
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Texas Christian University Press,U.S.
Country
United States
Published
13 March 2018
Pages
320
ISBN
9780875656663

Reluctant Activist: The Spiritual Life and Art of John Howard Griffin

Robert Bonazzi

This authorized biography by Robert Bonazzi, executor for the estate of John Howard Griffin (1920-1980), is based upon Griffin’s Journals from 1950-1980. Griffin was blinded in the South Seas during WW II, but regained sight in 1957, after which he wrote the classic Black Like Me (Houghton Mifflin, 1961), now translated into sixteen languages.

During a decade of blindness, Griffin published two novels and many short stories. His third novel, Street of the Seven Angels, was published posthumously by Wings Press (2003). The first two novels, The Devil Rides Outside (a banned best seller that was adjudicated by the Supreme Court not to be pornographic) and Nuni are Wings Press e-books, as is a fiftieth anniversary cloth edition of Black Like Me.

Griffin’s Encounters with the Other (1997) and Follow the Ecstasy, about Thomas Merton’s last years (1983), were published posthumously by Latitudes Press; Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton (1993) and Scattered Shadows: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision (2004) appeared posthumously from Orbis Books.

Author Robert Bonazzi follows Griffin year by year after 1961, when Griffin toured the globe as a lecturer on human rights. In addition to Griffin’s Journals, Bonazzi’s sources include Scattered Shadows, interviews with Studs Terkel, Mike Wallace, and other sources, plus the witness of Griffin’s widow Elizabeth Griffin-Bonazzi. The author completes Griffin’s story with Griffin’s photographic portraits of Thomas Merton, among many others, and his musicological essays.

This item is not currently in-stock. It can be ordered online and is expected to ship in approx 4 weeks

Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.

Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.