Anthony Heilbut (born November 22, 1940) is an American writer, and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

. He is noted for his biography of

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novella ...

, and has also won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

Life

Anthony Heilbut, the son of German Jewish refugees Bertha and Otto Heilbut, was born in New York. He has a doctorate in English from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. He received his Ph.D. from

when he was 25. For the next ten years he taught, first at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

and then at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

. Since 1976 he has been a full-time writer and record producer. Heilbut's first book, '' The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times'', was published in 1971 and has been updated several times since then; a "25th Anniversary Edition" appeared in 1997.

James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...

said,

It's a very beautiful book, with love and precision, no pity -- a little like a gospel song ... I didn't know that anybody knew that much about it, or cared that much, or could be so tough and lucid.

Counter-Punch magazine selected it as one of its top 100 books of the 20th century. ''Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America from the 1930s to the Present'' was published in 1983 and updated in 1997. It was a finalist for ''Los Angeles Times'' Book of the Year. In 2003, a conference entitled "Exiled in Paradise" was held at Los Angeles' Villa Aurora, the palatial residence of

Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. Feuchtwanger's Ju ...

, one of the best-known emigre writers. (Ironically Feuchtwanger's famous novel, ''

The Oppermanns ''The Oppermanns'' (german: Die Geschwister Oppermann) is a 1933 novel by Lion Feuchtwanger. It is the second novel in his ''Wartesaal'' ("The Waiting Room") trilogy, which tells about the rise of Nazism in Germany; the first part of the trilogy i ...

'', was inspired by Otto Heilbut's cousin

Wilfrid Israel Wilfrid Berthold Jacob Israel (11 July 1899 – 1 June 1943) was an Anglo-German businessman and philanthropist, born into a wealthy Anglo-German Jewish family, who was active in the rescue of Jews from Nazi Germany, and who played a significan ...

. Wilfrid, whom

Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood (26 August 1904 – 4 January 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist, playwright, screenwriter, autobiographer, and diarist. His best-known works include '' Goodbye to Berlin'' (1939), a semi-autobiographical ...

called "the greatest man I ever met", was also the inspiration for the character of Herr Landauer in Isherwood's ''

Goodbye to Berlin ''Goodbye to Berlin'' is a 1939 novel by Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood set during the waning days of the Weimar Republic. The novel recounts Isherwood's 1929–1932 sojourn as a pleasure-seeking British expatriate on the eve of Ad ...

''.) Heilbut's '' Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature'' was published in 1996. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the book "brilliant" and "astonishing".

Colm Toibin Colm is a male given name of Irish origin. Colm can be pronounced "Collum" or "Kullum". It is not an Irish version of Colin, but like Callum and Malcolm derives from a Gaelic variation on ''columba'', the Latin word for 'dove'. People * Colm B ...

in ''

The London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review of ...

'' called it "brilliantly perceptive", and the London ''

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

'' called it "endlessly illuminating". In 1997 it received the

Randy Shilts Award The Randy Shilts Award is an annual literary award, presented by Publishing Triangle to honour works of non-fiction of relevance to the gay community. First presented in 1997, the award was named in memory of American journalist Randy Shilts. Winn ...

for Gay Non-Fiction from the

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards pro ...

. He has written reviews and articles for, among others, ''

Harper's Magazine ''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...

'', ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...

'', ''

Truthdig Truthdig is an American news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, blog items, curated links, interviews, arts criticism and commentary on current events delivered from a politically progressive, left-leaning point of view. The site of ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', ''

Dimensions In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space (or object) is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus, a line has a dimension of one (1D) because only one coordina ...

'', ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the crea ...

'', ''

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

'', '' The Believer'', ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' Book Review, ''

Black Women in America Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...

'', and ''

The Encyclopedia of New York City ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' is a reference book on New York City, New York. Edited by Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson, the book was first published in 1995 by the New-York Historical Society and Yale Univers ...

''. Heilbut's ''The Fan Who Knew Too Much'', a collection of cultural essays published by

Alfred A. Knopf Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...

in 2012, ranges from Thomas Mann to the gay and lesbian influence on gospel music. The book has won the "Deems Taylor ASCAP Award", and was chosen by Lorin Stein, editor of the ''Paris Review'', as one of his seven recommended books of 2012. The book was released in paperback by Soft Skull Press in fall 2013. He has appeared in several documentaries including ''Rejoice and Shout'' (2011) and ''Sister Rosetta Tharpe: The Godmother of Rock and Roll'' (2011).

Producer

Heilbut is well known as a record producer. He has produced anthologies of jazz, country music, white gospel, and even opera (''50 Great Moments in Opera'' has sold over 700,000 albums), but his specialty is black gospel music. Among his productions, ''

How I Got Over "How I Got Over" is a Gospel hymn composed and published in 1951 by Clara Ward (1924–1973). Notable recordings of this work have been made by Mahalia Jackson (1961, winner of the Grammy Award for Best Soul Gospel Performance in 1976), and t ...

'' (Columbia) by

Mahalia Jackson Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to t ...

has won a Grammy Award; '' Prayer Changes Things'' (Atlantic) by Marion Williams has won a Grand Prix du Disque; and '' Precious Lord: The Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey'' (Sony) was the first gospel album to be included in the Library of Congress' National Directory. He has produced albums for many labels. Since 1987 he has been the president, sole producer, literary editor, and janitor of Spirit Feel Records, which is distributed by Shanachie Records. He jokes that the critical reception has been "as full-throated as a gospel solo." Ten Spirit Feel albums have received five-star reviews from ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

''. The magazine even called Marion Williams, Heilbut's most heralded artist, "the greatest singer ever." Thanks largely to her recordings for Spirit Feel, Williams received both the MacArthur Genius Award and the Kennedy Center Honor in 1993, tragically just a few months before her death. Other gospel acts Heilbut has produced include

The Dixie Hummingbirds The Dixie Hummingbirds are an influential American gospel music group, spanning more than 80 years from the jubilee quartet style of the 1920s, through the "hard gospel" quartet style of gospel's golden age in the 1940s and 1950s, to the eclecti ...

Professor Alex Bradford Alex Bradford (January 23, 1927 – February 15, 1978) (professionally known as Professor Alex Bradford) was a multi-talented gospel composer, singer, arranger and choir director, who was an influence on artists such as Little Richard, Bob Marle ...

Dorothy Love Coates Dorothy Love Coates (January 30, 1928 – April 9, 2002) was an American gospel singer.

Bessie Griffin Bessie Griffin (née Arlette B. Broil; July 6, 1922 – April 10, 1989) was an American gospel singer. From junior high into the late 1940s, she sang with the Southern Harps, who were better known later as the Southern Revivalists Of New Orl ...

, Reverend Claude Jeter,

R. H. Harris Rebert H. Harris (March 23, 1916 – September 3, 2000) was an American gospel artist and lead singer of the Soul Stirrers. He had a pure tenor three-octave voice that he utilized for moans and slurs and leaps into falsetto. He was instrumental in ...

Inez Andrews Sister Inez Andrews, born Inez McConico (April 14, 1929 – December 19, 2012) and better known as Inez Andrews, was an American gospel singer. Her soaring, wide-ranging voice — from contralto croon to soul-wrenching wail — made her a pillar ...

The Roberta Martin Singers The Roberta Martin Singers were an American gospel group based in the United States. History Founding The group was founded in 1933 by Roberta Martin, who in that same year had just become acquainted with gospels music, which was different from ...

Sallie Martin Sallie Martin (November 20, 1895 – June 18, 1988) was an American gospel singer referred to as the "Mother of Gospel" for her efforts to popularize the songs of Thomas A. Dorsey and her influence on other artists. Biography Martin was born in ...

J. Robert Bradley John Robert Lee Bradley (October 5, 1919 – May 3, 2007) was an American gospel music singer. He was the favorite singer of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was nicknamed "Mr. Baptist". Mahalia Jackson once said he had the greatest voice ...

, Robert Anderson,

Willie Mae Ford Smith Willie Mae Ford Smith (June 23, 1904 – February 2, 1994) was an American musician and Evangelism, Christian evangelist instrumental in the development and spread of gospel music in the United States. She grew up singing with her family, joinin ...

The Stars of Faith ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

and Delois Barrett Campbell. He says "it has been the thrill of my lifetime to work with my singing idols." He has also produced reissues and career overviews of Edna Gallmon Cooke,

The Fairfield Four The Fairfield Four is an American gospel group that has existed for over 100 years, starting as a trio in the Fairfield Baptist Church, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1921. They were designated as National Heritage Fellows in 1989 by the National End ...

, and his good friend

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her Gospel music, gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spir ...

. He has written close to one hundred liner notes. In 2010 he produced a combination CD/DVD, '' How Sweet It Was: The Sights and Sounds of Traditional Gospel''. In 2011 he annotated and co-produced Aretha Franklin

The Great American Songbook The Great American Songbook is the loosely defined canon of significant early-20th-century American jazz standards, popular songs, and show tunes. Definition According to the Great American Songbook Foundation: The "Great American Songbook" is ...

. Spirit Feel albums have not sold well. The photographer

David Gahr David Gahr (September 18, 1922 – May 25, 2008) was an American photographer. He was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Russian immigrant parents. He enlisted in the US Army the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and served in the infantry in Eu ...

once quipped, "I never heard of a label getting such great reviews and selling so few records." But the outlook is not totally bleak. In 2005, after Marion Williams album '' Remember Me'' was released, Heilbut was interviewed by

Michele Norris Michele L. Norris ( ; born September 7, 1961) is an American journalist who has worked as an opinion columnist with ''The Washington Post'' since 2019. From 2002 until 2011, she was co-host of the National Public Radio (NPR) evening news progra ...

on National Public Radio, and overnight, the album soared to #16 on amazon.com. Williams' Spirit Feel recordings, produced by Heilbut, have been featured in several films, most famously ''

Fried Green Tomatoes ''Fried Green Tomatoes'' is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Jon Avnet and based on Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel ''Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe''. Written by Flagg and Carol Sobieski, and starring Kathy Bates, Jessic ...

'' and ''

Mississippi Masala ''Mississippi Masala'' is a 1991 romantic drama film directed by Mira Nair, based upon a screenplay by Sooni Taraporevala, starring Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhury, and Roshan Seth. Set primarily in rural Mississippi, the film explores ...

'', as well as in the video game ''

Scene It ''Scene It?'' is an interactive film series created by Screenlife Games, in which players answer trivia questions about films or pop culture. The games were first developed to be played with questions read from trivia cards or viewed on a telev ...

''; as recently as January 2020 one was included in a

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

film directed by

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmmak ...

. That same month a Spirit Feel recording of Bessie Griffin was sampled in a

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...

commercial. And in April 2020,

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

compiled a 20-song tribute to the victims of the COVID-19

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the com ...

, which included Marion Williams’ ''Trouble So Hard'' — a track Heilbut composed and produced in 1990. Heilbut is an

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Works

* ''The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times'' (1975) * ''Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America'' (1983) * ''Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature'' (1995) * ''The Fan Who Knew Too Much'' (2012)

Prizes

ASCAP Deems Taylor Award (2013) Randy Shilts Prize for Gay Non-Fiction (1997) Grammy Award (producer of Mahalia Jackson‘s ''How I Got Over'' ) (1977) Grand Prix du Disque (producer of Marion Williams‘ ''Prayer Changes Things'' ) (1976)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heilbut, Anthony American biographers American male biographers 1940 births Harvard University alumni Writers from New York City Living people Record producers from New York (state) American people of German-Jewish descent Jewish American atheists Historians from New York (state)