The Young C.l.r. James: A Graphic Novelette (Pm Pamphlet)

"A vividly realized graphic biography that provides a delightful introduction to the early life and times of CLR James. Highly recommended." --Kent Worcester, author, C.L.R. James, a Political Biography

"Illustrated by Milton Knight and edited by political graphic novelist extraordinaire Paul Buhle and Lawrence Ware, the book traces the early years of a man born in 1901 whose most famous book was the 1938, The Black Jacobins, the first history of the Haitian revolt." --Randy Shaw, www.beyondchron.org/

"THERE'S LITERALLY NO reason for any socialist to not pick up this illustrated novelette, even if you've already read all of C.L.R. James' writings and have read the biographies and studies of his works written by Paul Buhle (the novelette's co-editor), James D. Young, Kent Worcester, Frank Rosengarten and others. This pamphlet is a delight, a charming caricature drawn in a whimsical style by Milton Knight, an artist who's worked on everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics to World War 3 Illustrated." --Jason Schulman, https: //solidarity-us.org

"The Young C.L.R. James is a worthy addition to this oeuvre. 'How could it be that James, the son of an obscure schoolteacher and a novel-reading mother, a rebellious and unwilling scholar, could grow into this stature?' Buhle and Ware ask in their introduction. There are many answers. But these comic pages provide clues nowhere else grasped.'" --Ed Rampell, The Progressive

"The Young C.L.R. James: A Graphic Novelette (PM Press) gives a new generation of readers a glimpse into the early years of the twentieth-century Pan-Africanist revolutionary writer C.L.R. James (1901-1989). Illustrated by Milton Knight and edited by Lawrence Ware and Paul Buhle, this small book recalls the early life of the Trinidadian activist, best known for his 1938 book Black Jacobins, a history of the Haitian revolution led by Toussaint L'Ouverture. Paul Buhle, himself a radical historian, is author of the classic 1988 biography of James, C.L.R. James: The Artist as Revolutionary (reissued last year in an expanded version with an afterword by Ware). Buhle has in recent years worked with other writers and artists to create a series of graphic or "comix" biographies of radical figures, including Rosa Luxemburg, Eugene Debs, Emma Goldman, Johnny Appleseed, Robin Hood, and even Jesus Christ (Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith). The Young C.L.R. James is a worthy addition to this oeuvre. 'How could it be that James, the son of an obscure schoolteacher and a novel-reading mother, a rebellious and unwilling scholar, could grow into this stature?' Buhle and Ware ask in their introduction. 'There are many answers. But these comic pages provide clues nowhere else grasped.'" --The Progressive

The son of a provincial school administrator in British-governed Trinidad, James disappointed his family by embracing the culture and passions of the colonial underclass. He joined the literary avant-garde of the island before leaving for Britain. In the UK, James swiftly became a beloved cricket journalist, playwright for his close friend Paul Robeson, and a pathbreaking scholar of black history with The Black Jacobins, the first history of the Haitian revolt. The artistic skills of Milton Knight, at once acute and provocative, bring out James’s unique personality, how it arose, and how he became a world figure.