Albert Murray's Magical Youth

Abstract

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's a short walk from 125th Street subway station to Harlem home of Albert Murray, Stanley Crouch's literary father man whom Henry Louis Gates Jr. dubbed King of Cats in New Yorker a few years ago. Murray, a student with Ralph Ellison at Tuskegee in 1930s later Ellison's sparring partner for decades (their long-running cultural dialogue was published in 2000 as Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison Albert Murray), began publishing novels after he retired from Air Force in 1962. may be best known for his trilogy Train Whistle Guitar (1974), The Spyglass Tree (1991), The Seven League Boots (1996), but his critical writings include South to a Very Old Place (1972) From Briarpatch File: On Context, Procedure American Identity (2001), as well as countless articles. I was calling on him in my research for a documentary on Federal Writers' Project, his early friendship with Ellison. As I covered blocks I mentally retraced my phone calls with Murray, searching for some encouragement. Found none. was generally indifferent to questions about his friend's early days on Federal Writers' Project. Murray wasn't interested in politics and all that bullshit, he warned. But he was gracious enough to welcome a visit. I lowered my expectations kept walking. The apartment building dominated an otherwise patchy block. I signed in at desk took elevator up. Mrs. Murray let me in graciously before letting herself out to go to market. Their apartment was packed to transom with books artwork, including a striking collection of African art Romare Bearden prints of Ellington Ulysses. What dominated place, though, was spectacular south-facing window, wide as living room, its down-island vista of all Manhattan. Murray moved slowly used a walker, occasionally he rambled. But at ninety, his mind was agile. Out of nowhere, he launched into a discourse on Booker T. Washington's philosophy for Tuskegee, outlining the talented tenth idea, taking it back to Frederick Douglass, then forward to his own essay in From Briarpatch File, award he received as a notable Alabama writer. Not black writer! Alabama writer. was proud of that. gave an impersonation of Washington (Yes, Lord made Earth, but Dutch made Holland) laughed. said that Washington's point, missed by many of his detractors, was that blacks should work to secure their own property economic base. Murray remained uninterested in my list of questions. Emergency relief work on FDR's New Deal was too ideological for an artist, he said. Murray is famously allergic to labels, especially label of black writer, resents political baggage. knew Ellison not as a black writer, but as an artist intellect beyond categories, beyond simple views of race--like multiracial characters in Ellison's unfinished second novel, published posthumously in 2000 as Juneteenth this year as Three Days Before Shooting. Everybody's related in United States, see? Murray said. Everybody is part white part black ... Those abstractions [white black] get you around But epic literature of thing will deal with metaphors that help you to cope with complexity. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When I asked about 1930s more generally, he directed me to a photo album across room. That's Tuskegee, 1939, he said, pointing to a photo of him in a suit, looking flash. That's way I dressed. The suit was from the swankiest store in Atlanta, a four-hour drive away. Long before Murray met Ellison to discuss books, he first noticed older boy because of his style. He was a junior when I was a freshman, Murray told me. Ellison had worked briefly at a haberdashery in Oklahoma City, which is what attracted me to him. …