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Smith, William Gardner

William Gardner Smith

Journalist, novelist, and prominent member of the expatriate community of postwar Paris noir, William Gardner Smith (1927-1974) was born and raised in Philadelphia but traveled widely in Europe and Africa after 1951.  Fluent in French, he wrote and edited for the Agence France-Presse, the world’s oldest international news agency, when not authoring a string of English-language novels of black life: The Last of the Conquerors (1948), South Street (1954), and The Stone Face (1963).  The FBI charted Smith’s progress beginning in 1951, playing havoc with his passport for several years.  The Stone Face, a pioneering depiction of anti-Arab racism, can also be considered an “antifile” answering such FBI interference.  Probably unfairly, Richard Wright considered Smith the true author of the so-called Gibson Affair that divided black Paris in the late 1950s.

Smith Part 1

Smith Part 2

Smith Part 3

Smith Part 4

Title
Smith, William Gardner

Description
FBI documents studying William Gardner Smith.

Creator
FBI

Publisher
FBI

Date
1951-1974

Rights
Material is in the public domain.

Format
text, 171 PDFs, 400 ppi

Language
English

Type
text

Coverage
1951-1974