for example, who praises Beatty’s “extraordinary
eye for detail,” suggests that Beatty follow the path
“paved by his predecessors, Chester Himes, John
O. Killens and John A. Williams... [,] think the
unthinkable” and step away from characters who
are “police lineup chic” (1). Reed’s perspective is
generally outweighed by other critics who have al-
ready called Beatty the new RALPH ELLISON because
of his deft handling of issues of race, gender, and
identity.
Beatty, who says he writes because he’s “too
afraid to steal, too ugly to act, too weak to fight,
and too stupid in math to be a Cosmologist,” lives
and works in New York City.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bernstein, Richard. “Black Poet’s First Novel Aims the
Jokes Both Ways” New York Times, 31 May 1996,
c25.
Furman, Andrew. “Revisiting Literary Blacks and
Jews.” The Midwest Quarterly 45, no. 2 (Winter
2003): 131–147.
Mosely, Walter. “Joker, Joker, Deuce.” Review Publish-
ers Weekly, 2 February 1994. Available online. URL:
http://reviewpublishersweekly.com/bd.aspx?/
sbn=0140587233&pub-pw. Accessed February 16,
2007.
Reed, Ishmael. “Hoodwinked: Paul Beatty’s Urban
Nihilists.” Village Voice Literary Supplement,
April–May 2000. Available online. URL: http://
http://www.villagevoice.com/specials/ULS/167/read.
shtml. Accessed February 14, 2007.
Selinger, Eric Murphy. “Trash, Art, and Performance
Poetry.” Parnassus: Poetry in Review 23, no. 1/2
(1998): 356–358.
Svoboda, Terese. “Try Bondage.” Kenyon Review
(Spring 1995): 155–157.
Deborah Smith Pollard
Beckham, Barry (1944– )
The novelist and book publisher Barry Beckman
was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March
19, 1944, to Clarence and Mildred (William) Beck-
ham. At age nine, he moved with his mother to a
black section of Atlantic City, New Jersey, which
offered him a wealth of cultural exposure. He at-
tended interracial public schools and graduated
from Atlantic City High School. While there,
he enjoyed the popularity of his peers and read
such writers as JAMES WELDON JOHNSON, RICHARD
WRIGHT, and CHESTER HIMES. In 1962 he entered
Brown University as one of only eight black mem-
bers of the freshman class. Inspired by the craft of
novelist John Hawkes, Beckham began writing his
first book, My Main Mother, in his senior year. In
1966 he graduated with a B.A. in English, married,
and briefly attended Columbia University College
of Law on a scholarship. Beckman has taught and
served as director of the graduate writing program
at Brown University and as writer-in-residence at
Hampton University. Since 1997, Beckham has been
married to Monica Scott of Washington, D.C.
In 1969 Beckham, at age 25, completed My Main
Mother, which won him praise for having “pen-
etrating personal insight.” Set in an abandoned
wooden station wagon, My Main Mother presents
the psychological profile of a young man driven
to matricide by his mother’s avarice, promiscuity,
betrayal, and abuse of his personal things. As the
protagonist, Mitchell Mibbs, relives his experi-
ences through flashbacks while in rustic Maine, in
Harlem, at an Ivy League college, and during his
Uncle Melvin’s funeral in Boston, Beckham suc-
cessfully unravels the psychological complexity of
a lonely young man who quests for love, attention,
and respect, suggesting the extent to which people
will go to be recognized as human beings.
In 1972 Beckman published Runner Mack, his
most accomplished work; it was nominated for
a 1973 National Book Award. In Runner Mack,
Henry Adams, an aspiring black baseball player,
encounters several agents of racial oppression:
big business, the military, and professional sports.
Adams is convinced that baseball, his forte, is
an objective venue to his desired success. How-
ever, the fast-talking revolutionary Runner Mack
forces Adams to confront what he sees as Adams’s
false perception, shaking Adams’s convictions. As
Adams grows and seeks personal fulfillment and
identity in an oppressive society, Mack continues
to have an impact on him—one that is likened to
the force of a Mack truck.Beckham, Barry 39