Larson, Charles R(aymond) 1938-

views updated

LARSON, Charles R(aymond) 1938-

PERSONAL: Born January 14, 1938, in Sioux City, IA; son of Ray Olaf and Miriam (Kamphoefner) Larson; married Roberta Rubenstein, May 2, 1971; children: Vanessa, Joshua. Education: University of Colorado, B.A., 1959, M.A., 1961; Indiana University, Ph.D., 1970.

ADDRESSES: Home—3600 Underwood St., Chevy Chase, MD 20815. Office—Department of Literature, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20016. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: High school teacher in Burlington, IA, 1959-60, and Englewood, CO, 1961-62; grammar school teacher (as Peace Corps volunteer) in Oraukwu, Eastern Nigeria, 1962-64; University of Colorado, Boulder, instructor in English, spring, 1965; American University, Washington, DC, instructor in English, 1965-67; Indiana University at Bloomington, lecturer in comparative literature, 1967-70; American University, associate professor, 1970-73, professor, 1974—, chair of department of literature, 2002—. Fulbright lecturer in eleven African countries under auspices of U.S. Department of State, 1973; principal juror for annual English-Speaking Union Literary Award for English as a second language, 1972—; president of African Skies Library Foundation, 1998-2001.

MEMBER: National Humanities Faculty, National Peace Corps Association, PEN, African Literature Association.

AWARDS, HONORS: O. Henry Award, 1971, for story "Up from Slavery"; Younger Humanist fellow, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1974; Guggenheim fellow, 1976-77; individual research fellowship, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1985-86.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and author of introduction) African Short Stories: A Collection of Contemporary African Writing, Collier Books (New York, NY), 1970, published as Modern African Stories, Fontana (London, England), 1971.

(Editor and author of introduction) Prejudice: Twenty Tales of Oppression and Liberation, New American Library (New York, NY), 1971.

The Emergence of African Fiction, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1972, revised edition with new bibliography, Macmillan (London, England), 1979.

(Editor) More Modern African Stories, Fontana (London, England), 1975, published as Opaque Shadows and Other African Stories, Inscape (Washington, DC), 1976.

The Novel in the Third World, Inscape (Washington, DC), 1976.

Academia Nuts (novel), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1977.

The Insect Colony (novel), Holt (New York, NY), 1978.

American Indian Fiction, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1978.

Arthur Dimmesdale (fiction), A & W Publishers (New York, NY), 1983.

(Editor) An Intimation of Things Distant: The Collected Fiction of Nella Larsen, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella Larsen, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1993.

(Editor, with Roberta Rubenstein) Worlds of Fiction, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1993, 2nd edition, Prentice-Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ), 2002.

(Editor) Under African Skies: Modern African Stories, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1997. (Editor and author of introduction) The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen, Anchor Books (New York, NY), 2001.

The Ordeal of the African Writer, Zed Books (New York, NY), 2001, 2nd edition, Prentice Hall (Upper Saddle River, NJ), 2002.

General editor of "African-American Library" series, Collier, 1968—. Contributor of fiction, poetry, and reviews to periodicals, including Saturday Review, Atlantic Monthly, National Observer, Nation, Washington Post, World & I, Chicago Tribune, Detroit News, Worldview, New York Times Book Review, and New Republic. Associate editor, Pucred (satirical literary review), 1972-74; member of editorial board, World Literature Today (formerly Books Abroad), 1972—; books editor, English around the World (publication of English-Speaking Union), 1972—; fiction and book review editor, Worldview, 1996—.

SIDELIGHTS: Until Charles R. Larson joined the Peace Corps, he had "no particular interest in or knowledge of Africa, its people, and its culture," according to Barbara A. Bannon of Publishers Weekly. While teaching in Nigeria, Larson started buying books written by Africans and quickly became familiar with a variety of works and authors. When he returned to the United States, he found the courses in African literature wanting. Much important literature was not available, and what was being taught—books like Conrad's Heart of Darkness—presented a Western perspective. Larson was thus inspired to begin editing a series of books which Thomas A. Hale claimed in World Literature Today "has done much to enable teachers of literature to include African writers in their courses." James Alan McPherson of the New York Times Book Review wrote that in Opaque Shadows and Other African Stories, "Larson has selected superb stories that focus, without self-consciousness or remonstration, on the human condition as it presently exists among a variety of African People.... Most of the stories . . . reflect honest attempts by serious writers to get at those values, beyond color, which are always at the basis of good literature." Under African Skies: Modern African Stories was another highly praised collection of stories edited by Larson. Jennifer Hunt in American Visions called it a "splendid" volume, and that praise was echoed by a Publishers Weekly reviewer, who also approved of Larson's "illuminating introduction" and the "succinct" author biographies that preface the stories. Ellen Flexman, a writer for Library Journal, recommended Under African Skies as "an excellent introduction to African literature" and an "important" part of any collection of African-American literature.

In The Ordeal of the African Writer, Larson offers "a short but informative" guide to writing and publishing in contemporary Africa, reported Kristine Huntley in Booklist. The author describes in great detail the process of getting a book published, and explained why it is so difficult for African writers to realize any profit on their works. Huntley described the book as "accessible" even for those who have not read all the works discussed in it. She further called The Ordeal of the African Writer "eye-opening" and "essential" for anyone "interested in African writing or the huge obstacles African writers face." Chris Dunton concurred in a review for ZA@Play that the book is "a valuable manual documenting burning issues that confront the African writer."

Larson has also enjoyed some success as a writer of fiction. Much of the background for his novel The Insect Colony came from the author's own experiences in Nigeria and the Cameroons. The story centers around Hunter, a white entomologist, and other Europeans pursuing their interests in Africa. Charles Trueheart of the Washington Post Book World saw the depiction of conditions in these countries as disappointing: "The West Africa Larson undoubtedly knows—having lived there and taught and anthologized it literature—emerges only pallidly, a painted backdrop to the psychological goings-on among the expatriates. Such flatness might be considered intentional, a deliberate echo of all that Charles Larson means to say, were there an ironic or oblique dimension to anything else in The Insect Colony, which there isn't." Yet Peter Nazareth expressed a very different view in World Literature Today, terming The Insect Colony "a fine novel," skillfully written, and Peter S. Prescott in Newsweek advised, "This is a remorseless story strongly told. The sex fairly steams and the symbols are painted with the kind of bold brush that eases the lives of freshman English instructors."

Larson also tried his hand at a comic novel, with some success. His Academia Nuts was recommended as "very funny" by Bud Foote in the National Observer. Larson also experimented with Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel The Scarlet Letter, writing the story from the perspective of the adulterous minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Larson's book, titled Arthur Dimmesdale, includes elements of magic and an incident of stigmata. A Kirkus Reviews writer dismissed this novel as having "no apparent purpose," but a Publishers Weekly writer gave Larson "high marks for vision" and credited him with adding "unique Gothic touches to a classic."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 31, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1985.

Yearbook of Comparative General Literature, Indiana University (Bloomington, IN), 1979, pp. 70-71.

PERIODICALS

African American Review, spring, 1996, review of Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella Larsen,p. 127.

American Indian Quarterly, May, 1979, Jack L. Davis, review of American Indian Fiction, pp. 192-194.

American Literature, December, 1994, review of Invisible Darkness, p. 853.

American Studies International, April, 1995, review of Invisible Darkness, p. 130.

American Visions, February, 2000, Jennifer Hunt, review of Under African Skies: Modern African Stories, p. 37.

Arizona Quarterly, autumn, 1979, Larry Evers, review of American Indian Fiction, pp. 287-288.

Best Sellers, May, 1983, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 43.

Black Scholar, winter, 1994, review of Invisible Darkness, p. 66.

Black World, August, 1974, Omolara Leslie, review of The Emergence of African Fiction, pp. 91-97.

Booklist, December 15, 2001, Kristine Huntley, review of The Ordeal of the African Writer, p. 699.

Book World, November 9, 1997, review of Under African Skies, p. 8.

Choice, April, 1994, review of Invisible Darkness,p. 1293; January, 1998, review of Under African Skies, p. 814.

Entertainment Weekly, February 21, 1992, Suzanne Ruta, review of An Intimation of Things Distant: The Collected Fiction of Nella Larsen, p. 50.

Geographical Magazine, October, 1997, Melanie Train, review of Under African Skies, p. 102.

Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 1982, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 893; July 15, 1997, review of Under African Skies, p. 1063.

Library Journal, March 15, 1983, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 602; April 15, 1997, Ellen Flexman, review of Under African Skies, p. 122.

National Observer, June 6, 1977, Bud Foote, review of Academia Nuts, p. 19.

Newsweek, October 2, 1978, Peter S. Prescott, review of The Insect Colony, p. 94.

New York Times Book Review, July 17, 1977.

Publishers Weekly, September 11, 1978; August 6, 1982, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 58; December 23, 1983, review of Arthur Dimmesdale,p. 57; June 30, 1997, review of Under African Skies, p. 65.

School Library Journal, August, 1983, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 82.

Times Literary Supplement, December 29, 1972, review of The Emergence of African Fiction,p. 1573; December 30, 1994, review of Invisible Darkness, p. 5.

Virginia Quarterly Review, spring, 1998, review of Under African Skies, p. 57.

Washington Post Book World, October 3, 1978.

Wilson Library Bulletin, March, 1994, reviews of Invisible Darkness, p. 110.

World & I, November, 1997, review of Under African Skies, pp. 247, 257.

World Literature Today, summer, 1978; summer, 1983, review of Arthur Dimmesdale, p. 457; winter, 1995, review of Invisible Darkness, p. 152; spring, 1998, review of Under African Skies, p. 437.