A Different Drummer: the extraordinary rediscovered classic of 2018

Synopsis

In 1962, Aged Just 24, William Melvin Kelley's Debut Novel A Different Drummer Earned Him Critical Comparisons To James Baldwin And William Faulkner. Fifty-five Years Later, Author And Journalist Kathryn Schulz Happened Upon The Novel Serendipitously And Was Inspired To Write The New Yorker Article 'the Lost Giant Of American Literature', Included As A Foreword To This Edition. June, 1957. One Afternoon, In The Backwater Town Of Sutton, A Young Black Farmer By The Name Of Tucker Caliban Matter-of-factly Throws Salt On His Field, Shoots His Horse And Livestock, Sets Fire To His House And Departs The Southern State. And Thereafter, The Entire African-american Population Leave With Him. The Reaction That Follows Is Told Across A Dozen Chapters, Each From The Perspective Of A Different White Townsperson. These Are Boys, Girls, Men And Women; Either Liberal Or Conservative, Bigoted Or Sympathetic - Yet All Of Whom Are Grappling With This Spontaneous, Collective Rejection Of Subordination. A Lost Masterpiece Republished For 2018, A Different Drummer Is For Readers Who Have Been Waiting For The Next Rediscovered Classic. William Melvin Kelley. Originally Published: Doubleday, 1962.