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Gerald Early (b. 1952) is an essayist and American culture critic. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he is currently a professor of English, African studies, African American studies and American culture studies at the Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for essay collection The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture. He also served as a consultant on Ken Burns' documentary films Baseball and Jazz. He is a regular commentator on National Public Radio's Fresh Air. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of Best American Essays series. He writes on topics as diverse as American literature, the Korean War, African American culture, Afro-American autobiography, non-fiction prose, baseball, jazz, prizefighting, Motown, Miles Davis, Muhammed Ali and Sammy Davis Jr.

• B.A. in English literature at University of Pennsylvania (1974)
• M.A. in English literature at Cornell University (1980)
• Ph.D. in English literature at Cornell University (1982)

• Tuxedo Junction: Essays on American Culture (1989)
• The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture (1994)
• Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood (1994) (memoir)
• One Nation Under a Groove: Motown & American Culture (1994) (music history)
• How the War in the Streets Is Won: Poems on the Quest of Love and Faith (1995) (poetry)
• Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story (2000) (nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes)
• Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance (2001) (nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Album Notes)

• Lure and Loathing: Essays on Race, Identity and the Ambivalence of Assimilation (1993)
• Ain't But a Place: An Anthology of African American Writings About St. Louis (1998)
• Body Language: Writers on Sport (1998)
• The Muhammad Ali Reader (1998)
• Miles Davis and American Culture (2001)
• The Sammy Davis, Jr. Reader (2001)
• Black America in the 1960s (2003)
• My Soul's High Song: The Collected Writings of Countee Cullen
• Speech and Power: The African-American Essay in Its Cultural Content

• Washington University Faculty Page