Willard Motley, Let No Man Write my Epitaph

Robert E. Fleming (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1958

Places

United States, Illinois (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

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Let No Man Write My Epitaph

(1958) by Chicago African American novelist Willard Motley returns to the scene and to some of the same characters of the author's best-selling novel

Knock on Any Door

(1947). Motley picks up the lives of two minor characters from the earlier novel, Nellie Watkins, a girl friend of Nick Romano, and Louie Romano, Nick's brother, who was a small child when Nick was executed. He further reveals that Nellie became pregnant by Nick and now has a child, whom she has names Nick Romano, Jr.

Nellie reveres Nick as the one great love of her life and does her best to raise Nick, Jr. as a living monument to his father even though she lives in a slum and ekes out a living as a waitress. In spite of her best intentions, she abuses alcohol and heroin and carries on a sexual

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605 words

Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "Let No Man Write my Epitaph". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4017, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Willard Motley, Let No Man Write my Epitaph

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