science fiction, the neo–slave narrative Stars in My
Pocket like Grains of Sand.
Transgressive themes have characterized Dela-
ny’s output from the beginning, as evidenced by
his often sexually explicit science-fiction texts.
Even more controversially, Delany has explored the
world of pornography in such novels as The Tides
of Lust (aka Equinox) (1973) and Hogg and created
provocatively sexualized social worlds in his best-
selling novel Dhalgren (1975), the work that many
critics consider his masterpiece, and the AIDS pi-
caresque, The Mad Man (1994). He also offers per-
sonalized accounts of his life as a sex radical and
theorist of sexuality in his autobiographical works
The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fic-
tion in the East Village (1988, rev. and expanded
edition 1990) and Times Square Red, Times Square
Blue (1999). These books laid the groundwork for
Delany’s recognition by the gay and lesbian cre-
ative and intellectual community as a major voice
in the creation of a counternarrative to heteronor-
mative cultural politics.
With such texts as The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Notes
on the Language of Science Fiction (1977), Star-
board Wine: More Notes on the Language of Science
Fiction (1984), and Silent Interviews: On Language,
Race, Sex, Science Fiction, and Some Comics (1994),
Delany has also established himself as one of the
most prolific and authoritative critics and theo-
rists on science fiction. These critical texts and the
teaching positions that he has had over the years
at such universities as the State University at Buf-
falo, Cornell University, the University of Massa-
chusetts at Amherst, and most recently at Temple
University, reflect Delany’s increasingly prominent
status as an academic.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fox, Robert Elliot. The Conscientious Sorcerers: The
Black Postmodernist Fiction of LeRoi Jones / Amiri
Baraka, Ishmael Reed, and Samuel R. Delany. New
York: Greenwood Press, 1987.
Sallis, James, ed. Ash of Stars: On the Writing of Sam-
uel R. Delany. Jackson: University Press of Missis-
sippi, 1996.
Slusser, George E. The Delany Intersection: Samuel
Delany Considered as a Writer of Semi-precious
Words. San Bernardino, Calif.: Borgo Books,
1977.
Terry RowdenDemby, William (1922– )
Born on Christmas Day to William and Gertrude
Demby of Clarksburg, West Virginia’s coal mining
region, Demby enjoyed, with his siblings, the eth-
nically diverse, middle-class lifestyle his father, a
file clerk for Hopewell Natural Gas Company, was
able to provide. Demby attended West Virginia
State College, where his teachers included the dis-
tinguished poet MARGARET WALKER, after graduat-
ing from Langley High School. Leaving to serve in
the U.S. Army during World War II, Demby com-
pleted his education at Fisk University, where he
studied with ROBERT HAYDEN, a major voice in Af-
rican-American poetry. Moving to Italy, where he
had been stationed during the war, Demby stud-
ied art history and became, like RICHARD WRIGHT,
FRANK YERBY, and JAMES BALDWIN, an expatriate.
He married an Italian, Lucia Drudi, with whom
he fathered a son, James. Returning to the United
States in 1969, he taught at the College of Staten
Island of the City University of New York, retiring
in 1989.
Demby is the author of four novels: Bettlecreek
(1950), The Catacombs (1950), Love Story Black
(1978), and Blueboy (1979). Written while he was
an expatriate, the first two novels are the better
known of the four. In Bettlecreek, when white re-
cluse William Trapp catches Johnny Johnson in
one of his apple trees, he invites him into his home
for cider. Johnny and his Nightrider gang members
had gone to the orchard to steal apples and harass
the well-known hermit. The odd couple not only
develop a special friendship but are also joined by
Johnny’s uncle, David Diggs, who comes looking
for his missing nephew, in a relationship that tran-
scends the racial taboos of their segregated West
Virginia community. By the end of novel, Trapp
leaves his isolated world to rejoin the larger com-
munity through his altruistic acts.
When Johnny returns to Bettlecreek from Pitts-
burgh, he is anxious to reunite with Trapp and hisDemby, William 135