Herbert Simmons

Herbert Simmons (born 1930 or 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American writer.

Simmons attended Lincoln University in Missouri where he studied journalism. He interrupted his studies to do military service, and afterwards went to St. Louis' Washington University where he graduated with a B.A. in English Composition.

In 1957, his first novel Corner Boy was published and Simmons was awarded a Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship. In 1958 the novel saw a British edition. The paperback edition, which appeared in 1958, made the book popular for a number of years, resulting in very respectable sales figures. His second novel, Man Walking on Eggshells appeared in 1962, supposedely as part one of a trilogy titled Destined to Free. However, parts two and three, tentatively titled Tough Country and The Land of Nod never appeared and it is not known whether Simmons ever completed them.

Following the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles the Watts Writers Workshop was established with Simmons one of the key participants. Later, he became a lecturer at California State University, Northridge, retiring in the mid-1990s. Little is known about him, and he hasn't published new material since 1962, however his two novels have seen a number of new editions.

In 1979 Corner Boy was adapted for the stage.

Simmons' two novels paint a vivid picture of life in the black ghetto prior to the civil rights movement. The protagonists are young black men drifting between a career in music and street life. Simmons's plots contain elements of naturalism as well as of hardboiled crime fiction. The language and rhythms of Simmons' novels has been compared to Bebop and Cool Jazz, and especially in Man Walking on Eggshells the prose is very rhythmical, following the forms and improvisational patterns of jazz.

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