BOOK

Writing to Save a Life : The Louis Till file

Wideman, John Edgar, author

2017

Overview

Emmett Till took a train from his home in Chicago to visit family in Money, Mississippi; a few weeks later he returned home dead. Murdered because he was a colored boy and had, allegedly, whistled at a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till, chose to display her son's brutalized face in a glass-topped casket, \"so the world can see what they did to my baby.\" Emmett Till's murder and his mother\\'s refusal to allow his story to be forgotten have become American legends. But one darkly significant twist in the Till legend is rarely mentioned: Louis Till, Emmett's father, Mamie's husband, a soldier during World War II, was executed in Italy for committing rape and murder. In 1955, when he and Emmett were each only fourteen years old, Wideman saw a horrific photograph of dead Emmett's battered face. Decades later, upon discovering that Louis Till had been court-martialed and hanged, he was impelled to investigate the tragically intertwined fates of father and son. Writing to Save a Life is \"part exploration and part meditation, a searching account of [Wideman's] attempt to learn more about the short life of Louis Till\" (The New York Times Book Review) and shine light on the truths that have remained in darkness. Wideman, the author of the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, \"is a master of quiet meditation - and his book is remarkable for its insight and power\" (SFGate). An amalgam of research, memoir, and imagination, Writing to Save a Life is essential and \"impressive\" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) reading-an engaging, enlightening conversation between generations, the living and the dead, fathers and sons.

• Publisher: Scribner
• Subject: Till, Louis, 1922-1945 Death and burial. / Till, Emmett, 1941-1955 Death and burial. / Wideman, John Edgar. / United States. Army. Transportation Command. Battalion, 379th. Company, 177th Biography. / World War, 1939-1945 African Americans Biography. / African American soldiers Biography. / War crimes Italy Civitavecchia. / War crimes United States History 20th century. / World War, 1939-1945 Italy. / African American men Social conditions 20th century.
• ISBN: 1501147293, 9781501147296

Item info:

1 item available

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
D810.N4 W49 2017	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE