Albert Murray, 1916-2013

“Albert Murray, an influential essayist, critic and novelist who found literary inspiration in his Alabama roots and saw black culture and American culture as inextricably entwined, died on Sunday at his home in Harlem. He was 97.” Try this. Update: The New Yorker has made its 1996 profile of Murray available to everyone. Henry Louis Gates Jr., who wrote the profile, has more here.