Born in New York in 1937, William Melvin Kelley was an African-American writer known for his satirical explorations of race relations in America. He was just twenty-four years old when his debut novel, A Different Drummer, was first published in 1962, earning him critical comparisons to William Faulkner and James Baldwin. A Drop Of Patience, first published in 1965, is his second novel. Considered part of the Black Arts Movement, Kelley was in 2014 officially credited by the Oxford English Dictionary with coining the political term 'woke,' in a 1962 New York Times article entitled 'If You're Woke You Dig It'. He died in February of 2017, aged 79.
A Drop Of Patience is a moving, painful and stinging experience. - New York Times Book Review In this, as in his earlier books, Mr. Kelley writes with strength, simplicity and absolute honesty. - New York Herald Tribune Kelley wrote intricate novels that identified with the rejection of dominant social orders. - Public Books Without being imitative he has shown that he belongs to that small company of modern authors who possess the accomplished touch of the creative artist. - AP Newsfeatures The Lost Giant of American Literature. - New Yorker Kelley blended fantasy and fact to construct an alternative world whose sweep and complexity drew comparisons to James Joyce and William Faulkner. - New York Times Kelley is as good on disability as he is on race, and life for a blind person is skillfully depicted in his novel . . . There is plenty to recommend in its moving, honest account of a young black man trying to find his way in a hostile world . . . A thoughtful, inventive writer who was well before his time.