Leon Forrest

Nathalie-Aline Gauger (Universität Stuttgart)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

The award-winning African-American writer Leon Forrest was born in Chicago in 1937. His hometown inspired him throughout his life and served as the raw model for the fictional place – Forest County – where all of his five novels are set. Forrest attended classes at Roosevelt University and worked at a liquor store owned by his mother. After dropping out of Roosevelt University in 1960, Forrest was drafted and stationed in Germany from 1960 to 1962, an experience he was to use in his epic novel

Divine Days

. Also, during his time in the army he started to write for the

Spearhead

and continued to pursue a writing career after his return to the US. He worked for several newspapers, including the Black Muslim

Muhammad Speaks

, although he himself was not a Muslim. Yet Forrest is not what…

1489 words

Citation: Gauger, Nathalie-Aline. "Leon Forrest". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 December 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1591, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1591 Leon Forrest 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.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.