It may be said that Herbert Simmons, a native of St. Louis, wrote Corner Boy and Man Walking on Eggshells not only to create memorable characters but also to recreate the St. Louis of his mind. The jazz, joy, nostalgia, and pain in these works are as much a part of the city as those who live in it. In Corner Boy, the characters are the city; they manifest its hope, magic, corruption, and failure. In Man Walking on Eggshells, the city is the muse of the black musician. Simmons's literary photography provides graphic details of time and place: the dress, language, walk, music, and life-style of black youth of the 1940s and 1950s. Such details alternate with panoramic shots of the city within a city--the Afro-American microcosm which exists, tries to survive, and is controlled by an indifferent macrocosm of whites.

Simmons was born on 29 March 1930, the...