Vincent O. Carter was an African American writer who for most of his adult life lived in

Bern german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese , neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen , website ...

, Switzerland. His best-known work is the autobiographical ''The Bern Book: A Record of a Voyage of the Mind''.

Life

Vincent O.Carter was born in

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, where he grew up in poverty. As a young man he was drafted into the US Army and was deployed in France. After the war, the

G. I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

gave him the opportunity to study at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and he also spent a year at

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

in Detroit, while, at the same time, working as a cook for the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

and for a Detroit auto manufacturer. After finishing his degree, he returned to Europe where, in the mid-1950s, and after extended stays in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, he finally settled down in the Swiss de facto capital Bern. There he wrote most of his works, painted and worked as an English teacher. He died in Bern on December 14, 1983.

Writing

''The Bern Book'', completed in 1957, yet only published in the US in 1973 under the title ''The Bern Book: A Record of a Voyage of the Mind'' is a sharply observed, autobiographical narrative describing the city, its inhabitants and their reaction to a black foreigner living among them. A German translation was published in Switzerland in 2021. He is also the author of ''Such Sweet Thunder'', which narrates the story of a boy growing up in the segregated Kansas City during the 1920s and 1930s. This book, while completed in 1963, was only published in 2003.Review of Such Sweet Thunder in Publishers Weekly
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Works

* ''The Bern Book. A Record of a Voyage of the Mind''. John Day Co., New York 1973, ISBN 0381982378 ** Reissued as ''The Bern Book'' by the

Dalkey Archive Press Dalkey Archive Press is an American publisher of fiction, poetry, foreign translations and literary criticism specializing in the publication or republication of lesser-known, often avant-garde works. The company has offices in Funks Grove, Il ...

, 2020, ISBN 9781628973167 ** ''Meine weisse Stadt und ich. Das Bernbuch''. Translated into German by Pociao and Roberto de Hollanda. Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2021, ISBN 9783039260096 * ''Such Sweet Thunder.'' Steerforth Press, South Royalton 2003, ISBN 9781586420581

Literature

Darryl Pinckney Darryl Pinckney (born 1953 in Indianapolis, Indiana) is an American novelist, playwright, and essayist. Early life Pinckney grew up in a middle-class African-American family in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he attended local public schools. He wa ...

: ''Out There: Mavericks of Black Literature''. Basic Civitas Books, New York 2002, ISBN 0465057608.

External links

Vincent O. Carter
entry in the ''literapedia bern''
The Kansas City Vincent O. Carter Project

Vincent O. Carter at Dalkey Archive Press

(German)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carter, Vincent O. 1924 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers African-American novelists African-American short story writers American expatriates in Switzerland American male novelists American male short story writers Writers from Missouri 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century African-American writers