Author john howard griffin biography
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Griffin considered Maritain his spiritual mentor, and the letters contain references to Maritain's ongoing works, as well as his responses to Griffin's books.
In 1951, he converted to Catholicism. At age 19, he worked as a medic in the French Resistance army, evacuating Austrian Jews safely from the Nazis. The series concludes with a short draft of a essay titled "Publication Year," in which Griffin discusses his feelings about being published.
With a few exceptions, these letters are photocopies whose originals are housed in the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas (see file 3.4 for a letter from SMU sending Turner these photocopies). The bulk of the outgoing correspondence is addressed to Griffin's close friend Decherd Turner, and covers both personal and literary topics.
He interned at the Asylum of Tours, where he conducted experiments on the therapeutic use of music for the criminally insane.
He received certificates of musical study from the Conservatoire de Fontainebleau. The letters pertain largely to religion, but they also document Griffin's interest in social issues, literature, and photography. After becoming the target of local protests against “Black Like Me,” Griffin moved with his family to Mexico, where he remained for about nine months before moving to Fort Worth.
In the French school, Griffin was shocked to see white students having lunch with blacks. His family received death threats and was forced to move out of their hometown of Mansfield, Texas. He ultimately received a certificate in piano and composition. Griffin wrote of his experience of blindness and recovery in the memoir Scattered Shadows: A Memoir of Blindness and Vision (2004).
He was a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, the Royal Academy of Photographers (Great Britain), and the musical fraternity Phi Mu Alpha. It was a great success, selling millions of copies, and was made into a film in 1964. His first novel, The Devil Rides Outside (1952), is about a man who is torn between the desire for romantic love and a desire for life as a monk.
John Howard Griffin, Writer born
On this date in 1920, John Griffin, a white-American writer and musicologist, was born.
John Howard Griffin was born in Dallas, TX. His mother was a classically trained pianist who taught for 30 years in the Fort Worth area, and his father was an Irish tenor and a radio personality.
Griffin also spent time at the Abbey of Solesmes contemplating a religious vocation. Much of this correspondence is in French. Griffin wrote a great number of books, articles, and reviews, the most famous and controversial of which was Black Like Me. In this book he examined the attitudes of whites toward African-Americans in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.
Two folders of incoming and outgoing correspondence with Turner document his activities on behalf of Griffin, and particularly Turner's association with The John Howard Griffin Reader. The largest compilation of correspondence in this series came from American literary historian and critic Maxwell Geismar. In order to obtain firsthand experience, Griffin dyed his skin and lived among other African-Americans for some weeks in the fall of 1959.