Gerald Early

Gerald Lyn Early is an American essayist and American culture critic appearing and serving as a consultant on Ken Burns documentary films Baseball Jazz Unforgivable Blackness The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson The War and Muhammad Ali Currently Early is the Merle Kling Professor of Modern letters of English African studies AfricanAmerican studies American culture studies and Director Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University in St Louis Missouri He is a regular commentator on National Public Radios Fresh Air and his essays have appeared in numerous editions of Best American Essays series He writes on topics as diverse as American literature the Korean War AfricanAmerican culture AfroAmerican autobiography nonfiction prose baseball jazz prizefighting Motown Miles Davis Muhammad Ali and Sammy Davis Jr