Sam Greenlee, whose movie “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” became a cult classic, dies 5/19/14

Poet and novelist Sam Greenlee in 1973. His movie, “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” based on his book by the same name, became a classic in the black nationalist movement.
Sam Greenlee, a onetime Foreign Service officer whose 1969 novel and a subsequent film, both called “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” became underground sensations during the black nationalist movement, died May 19 at his home in Chicago. He was 83.
The death was confirmed by a friend, Chicago-based filmmaker Pemon Rami, who did not cite a specific cause.

His sudden death at the age of 83 offers opportunity for reflection on a man trapped in the suspended animation of one great work that briefly elevated, then haunted, him into his last days. An apprehensive and highly educated foreign service officer who abruptly quit the business of American global dominance in anguished pursuit of a lifetime in written word, Greenlee spawned like a lost child of Ralph Ellison.  Read more here

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