Walter Mosley

Stuart Sim (University of Sunderland)
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Walter Mosley was born in Los Angeles to an African-American father and a Jewish mother, and his mixed race identity has had a critical impact on his fiction, which has been strongly supportive of both the African-American and Jewish causes. Now resident in New York, Mosley has served on various public and professional bodies, such as the board of the National Book Awards and the Mystery Writers of America (of which he is a past-president).

Mosley’s most successful books have been those involving the character of Easy Rawlins, a sometime (and generally reluctant) private detective, living initially in the black ghetto in south Los Angeles in the 1940s. Through a series of books (11 to date), Mosley takes Rawlins, a World War II veteran deeply resentful at the racial prejudice he still

1564 words

Citation: Sim, Stuart. "Walter Mosley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12513, accessed 19 March 2024.]

12513 Walter Mosley 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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