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William Attaway

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Born: November 18 1911

Died: 1616 06 19861986

William Attaway was born in Mississippi, the son of a physician who moved his family to Chicago to escape the segregated South.

Attaway was an indifferent student in high school, but after hearing a Langston Hughes poem read in class and discovering that Hughes was black, he was inspired with an urgent ambition to write.

Rebelling against his middle-class origins, Attaway dropped out of the University of Illinois and spent some time as a hobo before returning to complete his college degree in 1936. He then worked variously as a seaman, a salesman, a union organizer, and as part of the Federal Writers’ Project, where he made friends with Richard Wright. Attaway moved to New York, published his first novel, 'Let Me Breathe Thunder' , the story of two white vagrants traveling with a young Mexican boy, and quickly followed it with 'Blood on the Forge' , about the fate of three African-American brothers in the Great Migration to the North.

Attaway never produced another novel, but went on to prosper as a writer of radio and television scripts, screenplays, and numerous songs, including the “Banana Boat Song ,” which was a hit for his friend Harry Belafonte.

A resident for many years of Barbados, Attaway returned to the United States toward the end of his life. He died in Los Angeles while working on a script.

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William Attaway

William Attaway

Books from William Attaway

Calypso Song Book

Let Me Breathe Thunder

Tough Kid (Let Me Breathe Thunder)

Day-O (the Banana Boat Song): For a Minimum of Five Steel Drums, Plus Drumset, and Optional Bass Guitar, Conductor Score & Parts

1960 British Hit Parade: B Sides Part One / Various

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