His interest in semiology, with its attendant concerns for the relationship between linguistics and psychology, is indicated in his collection of critical essays,
The Jewel-Hinged Jaw (1977), and in
The American Shore (1978), an extended reading of Thomas Disch's "Angouleme" (1971). All of Delany's work to date has been concerned consciously with the nature of language and art, the role of the artist, and the creative process. It is therefore no surprise that his work has been taken up by the scholarly community, but at the same time it has become quite popular with the general readership. All his novels are currently in print, except for
The Tides of Lust (1973), a pornographic novel which Lancer published just before that house went bankrupt. Even
Dhalgren (1975), his most demanding novel to date, had gone through twelve printings by the end of 1979.
Samuel Ray Delany, Jr., was born in Harlem in New York City. His mother was a native New Yorker and a friend of some of the Harlem Renaissance writers of the 1920s and 1930s. His father moved to New York from North Carolina and became a very successful funeral director. Delany's paternal grandfather was the first black Episcopal bishop in North Carolina and a founder of Saint Augustine's College.
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