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Anthony Heilbut

Anthony Heilbut is the author of THE GOSPEL SOUND: GOOD NEWS AND BAD TIMES (fourth edition, 1997; "one of the 100 greatest books of the twentieth century," Counter-Punch); EXILED IN PARADISE: GERMAN REFUGEE ARTISTS AND INTELLECTUALS IN AMERICA FROM THE 1930's TO THE PRESENT (1983, 1997; title and subject of conferences held in Los Angeles in 2003 and New York in 2004); THOMAS MANN: EROS AND LITERATURE (1996; winner of the Randy Shilts Prize for Gay Non-Fiction, 1997); a forthcoming collection of essays (2006); and numerous contributions to anthologies of literary and musical criticism. Contributor to THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW; THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW; THE NATION; THE NEW YORKER; THE VILLAGE VOICE, etc.

Record producer specializing in Black Gospel Music. Albums produced have won the Grammy Award (Mahalia Jackson's How I Got Over) and the Grand Prix du Disque (Marion Williams' Prayer Changes Things). In 2003 Precious Lord: The Beloved Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey was among the first fifty recordings to be selected by the Library of Congress for its National Registry. Also producer of anthologies of jazz, country, White Gospel, and opera.

Heilbut's long-awaited essay collection THE FAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH was published by Knopf in June 2012.

Barney Hoskyns' 1996 interview with Heilbut

List of articles in the library by artist

Dixie Hummingbirds, The, Soul Stirrers, The, Marion Williams: How Sweet It Was: The Sights and Sounds of Gospel's Golden Age

Sleevenotes by Anthony Heilbut, Shanachie Records, 2010

"You know, friends, they got this new music ... this rocking and roll. And I'd just like to say that it gets its beat... ...

Aretha Franklin, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Dinah Washington: Blue-Singing Gospel Girls: Aretha and her Forebears

Book Excerpt by Anthony Heilbut, 'The Fan Who Knew Too Much' (Knopf), June 2012

AMONG THE SEVERAL MYTHS Aretha's father Reverend C. L. Franklin incarnated was a familiar type, Reverend Eatemup, the man with pastoral appetites in food ...

Robert Johnson: Elijah Wald: Escaping the Delta - Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues

Book Review by Anthony Heilbut, Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 2004

WHOSE BLUES is it anyway? On his first trip to the Mississippi Delta, Elijah Wald found himself performing a Robert Johnson song at the Mt. ...

Josh White: The Original Soul Man: Josh White

Book Review by Anthony Heilbut, Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 2002

WHEN ELIJAH WALD first mentioned Josh White to his parents, their memories clashed. His father recalled an earthy laborer, sweating soulfully; his mother, a sleek ...

Marion Williams: The Genius of Marion Williams: My Soul Looks Back

Sleevenotes by Anthony Heilbut, Spirit Feel/Shanachie, 1994

IN RETROSPECT, Marion Williams' last year assumes an almost mythic shape. She finally received the worldly honours and material goods long denied her: the rush ...

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