Negro With a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey [Import] [Paperback]

Colin Grant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009

Definitive biography of Marcus Garvey from an exciting and talented new writer.

At one time during the first half of the twentieth century, Marcus Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. Hailed as both the ‘black Moses’ and merely ‘a Negro with a hat’, he masterminded the first International Convention of the Negro Peoples of the World, began the Universal Negro Improvement Association and captivated audiences with his powerful speeches and audacious ‘Back to Africa’ programme. But he was to end his life in penury, ignominy and friendless exile, after serving hail time in both the US and Jamaica.

With masterful skill, wit and compassion, Colin Grant chronicles Garvey’s extraordinary life, the failed business ventures, his misguided negotiations with the Ku Klux Klan, the two wives and the premature obituaries that contributed to his lonely, tragic death. This is the dramatic cautionary tale of a man who articulated the submerged thoughts of an awakening people.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The story of Marcus Garvey, the charismatic and tireless black leader who had a meteoric rise and fall in the late 1910s and early '20s, makes for enthralling reading, and Garvey has found an engaging and objective biographer in Colin Grant.... Grant's book is not all politics, ideology, money and lawsuits. It is also an engrossing social history.... 'Negro With a Hat' is an achievement on a scale Garvey might have appreciated."--New York Times Book Review
"Dazzling, definitive biography of the controversial activist who led the 1920s "Back to Africa" movement.... Grant's learned passion for his subject shimmers on every page A riveting and well-wrought volume that places Garvey solidly in the pantheon of important 20th-century black leaders."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Dense with detail, but consistently readable, this splendid book is certain to become the definitive biography. Garvey was a dreamer and a doer; Grant captures the fascination of both."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Grant's strength lies in his ability to re-create political moods and offer compelling sketches of colorful individuals and their organizations.... Negro With a Hat is an engaging and readable introduction to a complicated and contentious historical actor who, in his time, possessed a unique capacity to inspire devotion and hatred, adulation and fear."--Chicago Tribune
"Grant's biography ably captures the Garvey moment, although, perhaps wisely, he leaves the many contradictions in Garvey's character unresolved."--The New Yorker
"Informative and fascinating, Grant's profile of Garvey is a vital contribution."--Booklist
"Grant...provides a monumental, nuanced andbroadly sympathetic portrait.... Grant's book - his first - is a welcome and scholarly corrective."--Financial Times
"If a few blacks congregating on a street corner is still considered a threat to National Security, you can imagine the problems that Marcus Garvey encountered when he organized a whole bunch of them. Hounded by the Federal Government, the right, the left, the usual arm chair intellectuals and academics, Garvey found himself constantly under attack, yet, like the Napoleon, with whom some compared "The Man With A Hat," Garvey survived to fight on. He was also a prophet, predicting the day when KKK thinking would become mainstream. Colin Grant has not only written the best biography of one of the most fascinating persons of the 20th Century, but, for a historical work, an exciting read, part romance, part big screen political thriller."--Ishmael Reed
"Grant's book is a fine and valuable monument to his memory."--New Statesman

About the Author

Colin Grant is the son of Jamaican parents who came to Britain in the late 1950s. He spent five years failing to study medicine before turning to the stage. He has written and produced numerous plays including The Clinic, based on lives of the photojournalists, Don McCullin and Tim Page. He joined the BBC in 1989 and worked as a script editor and producer of the arts programmes on BBC World Service before joining BBC radio Science Unit.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Vintage Books (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099501457
• ISBN-13: 978-0099501459
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.2 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,078,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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