Roark Bradford

{{Infobox person

| name = Roark Bradford

| image = Roark Bradford.jpg

| caption = Bradford around 1928

| birth_name = Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford

| birth_date = {{birth date|1896|8|21}}

| birth_place = Lauderdale County, Tennessee

| death_date = {{death date and age|1948|11|13|1896|11|13}}

| death_place = New Orleans, Louisiana

| occupation = writer

| education = University of California, Berkeley

| nationality =

| movement =

| parents =

| spouse = Lydia Sehorn, Mary Rose Sciarra Himler

| children =

}}

Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford (August{{nbsp}}21, 1896{{snd}}November{{nbsp}}13, 1948) was an American short story writer and novelist.

Life

He attended University of California, Berkeley, and served as a first lieutenant in the Coast Artillery during World War I.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DoDelcNCAt8C&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA102| title=American English dialects in literature| editor=Eva Mae Burkett| publisher=Rowman & Littlefield| year=1978| isbn=978-0-8108-1151-5 }} He claims to have grown up on a plantation where he acquired intimate knowledge of African Americans--whom he described in three different types, a description denounced by Sterling Allen Brown as simply perpetuating racist stereotypes.{{cite journal |authorlink=Sterling Allen Brown |first=Sterling Allen |last=Brown |title=Negro Character as Seen by White Authors |journal=The Journal of Negro Education |volume=2 |issue=2 |year=1933 |pages=179-203 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2292236}}

He married Lydia Sehorn, divorcing her in July 1933 after having only son Richard Bradford. He then married Mary Rose Sciarra Himler, also a writer, in Carlsbad, New Mexico. He was night city editor for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Bradford continued to produce well-received work during the 1930s and early 1940s. He served in the U.S. Naval Reserve Bureau of Aeronautics Training during World War II. In 1946, he accepted a position as visiting lecturer in the English department at Tulane University in New Orleans.

On November 13, 1948, he died of amoebiasis, believed to have been contracted while he was stationed in French West Africa in 1943. His cremated remains were spread over the waters of the Mississippi River.

At the time of his death, Bradford's writings were very popular. Since the 1940s, however, much of his body of work has been reevaluated. Many criticize his work (as a white author) as patronizing and demeaning in its portrayal of Black characters.{{cite web |url=http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3412 |title=Roark Bradford (1896–1948) |publisher=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |accessdate=June 12, 2025 |date=March 13, 2024 |first=Mike |last=Polston}}

Marc Connelly adapted Ol' Man Adam and his Chillun for the stage as The Green Pastures, which won a Pulitzer Prize.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EpX4H4JdZOgC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA44|title=Southern Writers|isbn=9780807103906|accessdate=25 February 2015|last1=Flora|first1=Joseph M.|last2=Vogel|first2=Amber|date=September 1980|publisher=LSU Press }}

His stage adaption of John Henry appeared in New York City in 1940.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lOSvzYLs3tMC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA186| title=Louisiana: A Guide to the State| author=Federal Writers' Project| publisher=US History Publishers| year=1947| isbn=978-1-60354-017-9 }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPJZTJtz1IwC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA478|title=Out of Sight|isbn=9781604730395|accessdate=25 February 2015|last1=Abbott|first1=Lynn|last2=Seroff|first2=Doug|date=18 September 2009|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi }}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8Gk-kEZ2NcC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA445|title=The Sound of Broadway Music: A Book of Orchestrators and Orchestrations|isbn=978-0-19-971882-5|accessdate=25 February 2015|last1=Suskin|first1=Steven|date=8 April 2009|publisher=Oxford University Press }}

His work appeared in Collier's,{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&q=Roark%20Bradford%20colliers&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp|title=Roark Bradford colliers - Google Search|work=google.com|accessdate=25 February 2015}} Harper's,{{cite web|url=http://www.harpers.org/subjects/RoarkBradford|title=Roark Bradford|work=harpers.org|accessdate=25 February 2015}} and Virginia Quarterly Review,{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dvQRAAAAMAAJ&q=Roark+Bradford|title=The Virginia Quarterly Review|work=google.com|year=1931|accessdate=25 February 2015}}

Awards

1927 O. Henry Award

Works

{{cite book| title=Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun | publisher=Harper & Row| year=1928 }}
{{cite book| title=This Side of Jordan | publisher=Harper & brothers| year=1929 }}
How Come Christmas 1930, reprinted Harpers & Brothers, 1948 ({{cite book| title=reprint| publisher=Cherokee Pub| year=1987| isbn=978-0-87797-208-2 }}
{{cite book| title=Ol' King David an' the Philistine Boys | publisher=Harper & Brothers| year=1930 }}
John Henry 1931 Reprint {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hbFnHc_wcgC&dq=Roark+Bradford+john+henry&pg=PP1| title=John Henry: Roark Bradford's novel and play| editor=Steven Carl Tracy| publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2008| isbn=978-0-19-537104-8 }}
{{cite book| title=Kingdom coming | publisher=Harper & Brothers| year=1933 }}
Let the Band Play Dixie 1934 ({{cite book| title=reprint| publisher=Books for Libraries Press| year=1970 | isbn=978-0-8369-3612-4 }})
{{cite book| title=The Three-Headed Angel| publisher=Harper & brothers| year=1937 }}
The Green Room, Harper & Brothers, 1949
{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hCDI5Md1WpUC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA391| chapter=The Birth of John Henry| title=A treasury of Afro-American folklore| editor=Harold Courlander| publisher=Marlowe & Company| year=2003| isbn=978-1-56924-501-9 }}
{{cite book| chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UVcPsL-OzkQC&dq=Roark+Bradford&pg=PA83| chapter=The Private World of William Faulkner| title=Conversations with William Faulkner| editor=M. Thomas Inge| publisher=University Press of Mississippi| year=1999| isbn=978-1-57806-136-5 }}