James Carlos Blake
Encyclopedia
James Carlos Blake is an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays. His work has received extensive critical favor and several notable awards. He has been called “one of the greatest chroniclers of the mythical American outlaw life” as well as “one of the most original writers in America today and … certainly one of the bravest.” He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters.
and in a wide-ranging interview in Firsts. He was born in Tampico, Mexico, a third-generation Mexican descended from American, English, and Irish ancestors—including a British pirate who was executed in Veracruz, Mexico
—and is a naturalized American citizen. His father, Carlos Sebastian Blake Hernandez, was a civil engineer. His mother, Estrella Maria Lozano Cano, was the daughter of a horse rancher and grew up on the family's ranch near Matamoros. Blake received his elementary education at St. Joseph’s Academy in Brownsville, Texas
, and graduated from high school in Miami, Florida
. After service in the U. S. Army airborne, he earned BA and MA degrees from the University of South Florida
(Tampa) and an MFA degree from Bowling Green State University
(Ohio), where he attended on a fellowship. He has worked as a snake-catcher, Volkswagen mechanic, swimming pool maintenance man, and county jail properties officer, but his primary occupation has been as a college instructor. He has taught at the University of South Florida, Bowling Green State University, Edison State College (Florida), the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
(Saudi Arabia
), and Miami Dade College
. In 1997 he left teaching to write full-time. He was married and divorced three times before he was forty and has since remained single.
. Structured as a sequence of first-person narratives—each of the dozens of chapters told by a different character—the novel was hailed as “an achievement by any standards, but as a first novel is simply astounding.” It was a finalist for the 1995 Best Novel of the West award from the Western Writers of America
. Despite its “western” setting, it was recognized as a significant literary work presenting not only the story of the title character, but also, through its vast array of narrators, a cultural mosaic of the South in the era of Reconstruction. The Pistoleer introduced several motifs that would recur in much of Blake’s subsequent work— violence as art; honor and morality as existential codes; and character as fate, a Heraclitean notion that Blake himself has cited as a pervasive theme in his fiction.
In the ten years following the publication of The Pistoleer, Blake published eight more novels and a collection of short works, plus more short stories and two memoir essays. In 1997 his third novel, In the Rogue Blood, gained him considerable attention and won the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Dealing with the misadventures of a pair of American brothers during the time of the U.S. war with Mexico
in the late 1840s, In the Rogue Blood is generally regarded as one of the most compelling works in recent American literature to treat violence as a primary engine of U.S. history. It has been widely compared to Cormac McCarthy
’s savage masterpiece, Blood Meridian.
While most of Blake’s short stories—and a novella, “Texas Woman Blues” — are set in more recent times, the chronological setting of all his novels to date is between the mid-19th-century and the latter 1930’s, and several of them feature historical figures as protagonists. In addition to Wes Hardin, his novels have centered on Pancho Villa
, the Mexican bandit and revolutionary (The Friends of Pancho Villa); John Ashley, of the notorious Ashley criminal gang in early twentieth–century Florida (Red Grass River); “Bloody Bill” Anderson, the Missouri guerrilla captain of the American Civil War
(Wildwood Boys); Harry Pierpont
, the 1930s gangster and leader of a band of bank robbers that included John Dillinger
(Handsome Harry); and Stanley Ketchel
, the ragtime-era boxing champion who was murdered at age twenty-four (The Killings of Stanley Ketchel). Even in those of his novels whose protagonists are created of whole cloth (In the Rogue Blood, A World of Thieves, Under the Skin), real-life people play significant or cameo roles. For the past few years Blake has been rumored to be at work on a large-scale novel based on his family forebears.
Several of Blake's works have been published in foreign editions, and Serbian
filmmaker Emir Kusturica
has announced plans to direct Wild Roses, Tender Roses, a feature film based upon Blake's novel The Friends of Pancho Villa. The script is by Gordan Mihić. Filming is scheduled to start in Serbia
and Spain
in 2012.
REFERENCES
Biography
Blake has written about his boyhood in a memoir essay entitled “The Outsider” and has discussed his life and work in a profile in Texas MonthlyTexas Monthly
Texas Monthly is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Austin, Texas. Texas Monthly is published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. and was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, Texas Monthly chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the environment, industry, and education...
and in a wide-ranging interview in Firsts. He was born in Tampico, Mexico, a third-generation Mexican descended from American, English, and Irish ancestors—including a British pirate who was executed in Veracruz, Mexico
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
—and is a naturalized American citizen. His father, Carlos Sebastian Blake Hernandez, was a civil engineer. His mother, Estrella Maria Lozano Cano, was the daughter of a horse rancher and grew up on the family's ranch near Matamoros. Blake received his elementary education at St. Joseph’s Academy in Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville, Texas
Brownsville is a city in the southernmost tip of the state of Texas, in the United States. It is located on the northern bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Brownsville is the 16th largest city in the state of Texas with a population of...
, and graduated from high school in Miami, Florida
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. After service in the U. S. Army airborne, he earned BA and MA degrees from the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
(Tampa) and an MFA degree from Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...
(Ohio), where he attended on a fellowship. He has worked as a snake-catcher, Volkswagen mechanic, swimming pool maintenance man, and county jail properties officer, but his primary occupation has been as a college instructor. He has taught at the University of South Florida, Bowling Green State University, Edison State College (Florida), the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals
King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals is a public university in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia....
(Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
), and Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College, or simply Miami Dade or MDC, is a state college with eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers located throughout Miami-Dade County, Florida in the United States. It is part of the Florida College System. Miami Dade College is the largest school in the Florida College...
. In 1997 he left teaching to write full-time. He was married and divorced three times before he was forty and has since remained single.
Works
Although Blake wrote sporadically from his teens until his thirties, it was not until the early 1980s, while again living in Miami, that he began to write with purpose, and over the next few years he published a number of short stories in a variety of literary journals. In 1995 he published his first novel, The Pistoleer, an account of the life and times of the infamous Texas outlaw, John Wesley HardinJohn Wesley Hardin
John Wesley Hardin was an American outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk hero of the Old West. He was born in Bonham, Texas. Hardin found himself in trouble with the law at an early age, and spent the majority of his life being pursued by both local lawmen and federal troops of the...
. Structured as a sequence of first-person narratives—each of the dozens of chapters told by a different character—the novel was hailed as “an achievement by any standards, but as a first novel is simply astounding.” It was a finalist for the 1995 Best Novel of the West award from the Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America
Western Writers of America, founded 1953, promotes literature, both fiction and non-fiction, pertaining to the American West. Although its founders wrote traditional western fiction, the more than five hundred current members also include historians and other non-fiction writers as well as authors...
. Despite its “western” setting, it was recognized as a significant literary work presenting not only the story of the title character, but also, through its vast array of narrators, a cultural mosaic of the South in the era of Reconstruction. The Pistoleer introduced several motifs that would recur in much of Blake’s subsequent work— violence as art; honor and morality as existential codes; and character as fate, a Heraclitean notion that Blake himself has cited as a pervasive theme in his fiction.
In the ten years following the publication of The Pistoleer, Blake published eight more novels and a collection of short works, plus more short stories and two memoir essays. In 1997 his third novel, In the Rogue Blood, gained him considerable attention and won the prestigious Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction. Dealing with the misadventures of a pair of American brothers during the time of the U.S. war with Mexico
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known as the First American Intervention, the Mexican War, or the U.S.–Mexican War, was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S...
in the late 1840s, In the Rogue Blood is generally regarded as one of the most compelling works in recent American literature to treat violence as a primary engine of U.S. history. It has been widely compared to Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, spanning the Southern Gothic, Western, and modernist genres. He received the Pulitzer Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction for The Road...
’s savage masterpiece, Blood Meridian.
While most of Blake’s short stories—and a novella, “Texas Woman Blues” — are set in more recent times, the chronological setting of all his novels to date is between the mid-19th-century and the latter 1930’s, and several of them feature historical figures as protagonists. In addition to Wes Hardin, his novels have centered on Pancho Villa
Pancho Villa
José Doroteo Arango Arámbula – better known by his pseudonym Francisco Villa or its hypocorism Pancho Villa – was one of the most prominent Mexican Revolutionary generals....
, the Mexican bandit and revolutionary (The Friends of Pancho Villa); John Ashley, of the notorious Ashley criminal gang in early twentieth–century Florida (Red Grass River); “Bloody Bill” Anderson, the Missouri guerrilla captain of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
(Wildwood Boys); Harry Pierpont
Harry Pierpont
Harry Pierpont was a Prohibition era gangster. He is perhaps most noted for being a friend and mentor of John Dillinger....
, the 1930s gangster and leader of a band of bank robbers that included John Dillinger
John Dillinger
John Herbert Dillinger, Jr. was an American bank robber in Depression-era United States. He was charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana police officer during a shoot-out. This was his only alleged homicide. His gang robbed two dozen banks and four police stations...
(Handsome Harry); and Stanley Ketchel
Stanley Ketchel
-External links:**...
, the ragtime-era boxing champion who was murdered at age twenty-four (The Killings of Stanley Ketchel). Even in those of his novels whose protagonists are created of whole cloth (In the Rogue Blood, A World of Thieves, Under the Skin), real-life people play significant or cameo roles. For the past few years Blake has been rumored to be at work on a large-scale novel based on his family forebears.
Several of Blake's works have been published in foreign editions, and Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
filmmaker Emir Kusturica
Emir Kusturica
Emir Nemanja Kusturica , is a Serbian filmmaker, actor and musician, recognized for several internationally acclaimed feature films...
has announced plans to direct Wild Roses, Tender Roses, a feature film based upon Blake's novel The Friends of Pancho Villa. The script is by Gordan Mihić. Filming is scheduled to start in Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 2012.
Awards
- 1991 Quarterly WestQuarterly WestQuarterly West is a prominent American literary magazine based at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Stories that have appeared in Quarterly West have been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Short Stories and the O...
Novella Prize for “I, Fierro” - 1993 Authors in the Park National Short Story Competition Award for “Under the Sierras”
- 1997 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction for In the Rogue Blood
- 1999 Southwest Book Award (Border Regional Library AssociationBorder Regional Library AssociationThe Border Regional Library Association promotes libraries and librarianship in the tri-border region of West Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The non-profit organization was founded in 1966 and, as of 2009, has over 100 members including libraries, librarians, trustees,...
) for Borderlands - 1999 Chautauqua South Book Award for Red Grass River
- 2007 Falcon Award (Maltese Falcon Society of Japan) for Under the Skin
Short Works
- “Aliens in the Garden,” short story, The Sun (October, 1987); Chapel Hill, NC
- “The House of Esperanza,” short story, The Sun (April, 1988); Chapel Hill, NC
- “A Scotsman Dies in Mexico,” short story, Voices of the Heart (1988); Ginn Press, Needham Heights, MA
- “Soldadera,” short story, Paragraph (summer, 1990); Holyoke, MA
- “Perdition Road,” short story, The Long Story (Spring, 1991); North Andover, MA;
- “Small Times,” short story, Gulf Stream MagazineGulf Stream MagazineGulf Stream Magazine is a literary magazine published by the Creative Writing Program at Florida International University. It was founded in 1989 by Lynne Barrett, who edited it until 2002 when John Dufresne became editor...
(Spring, 1991); Florida International University: Miami, FL; later reprinted as “La Vida Loca” - “I, Fierro,” novella, Quarterly WestQuarterly WestQuarterly West is a prominent American literary magazine based at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Stories that have appeared in Quarterly West have been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Short Stories and the O...
(Fall, 1991); University of Utah: Salt Lake City, Utah; includes parts of “Three Tales of the Revolution” - “The Sharks Below,” short story, Paragraph, (Winter/Spring, 1992); Holyoke, MA
- “Three Tales of the Revolution,” short story, The Sun (April, 1993); Chapel Hill, NC
- “Under the Sierras,” short story, Fine Print (1993); Winter Park, FL
- “Runaway Horses,” short story, Saguaro (1994); University of Arizona: Tucson, AZ
- “The Outsider,” memoir essay, The Los Angeles Times Book Review, 24 May 1998
- “Referee,” short story, Smoke (Summer, 1998)
- “Texas Woman Blues,” novella, Borderlands (1999); Avon Books, New York, NY; includes “Perdition Road.”
- “Old Boys,” short story, Glimmer Train StoriesGlimmer TrainGlimmer Train is an American literary journal founded in 1990 in Portland, Oregon. It is published quarterly.-Past contributors:* Brad Barkley* Charles Baxter* Ron Carlson* Greg Downs* Peter Selgin* Andre Dubus III* Aaron Gwyn* Noy Holland...
(Winter, 2000); Portland, OR - “Calendar Girl,” short story, Oxford AmericanOxford AmericanThe Oxford American is an American quarterly literary magazine "dedicated to featuring the very best in Southern writing while documenting the complexity and vitality of the American South."-First publication:...
(Sept/Oct 2000); Oxford, MS - “Shortcut,” memoir essay, Oxford American (Mar/Apr 2001); Oxford, MS
- “La Vida Loca,” short story, The Barcelona Review (Nov/Dec 2001)
Novels
- The Pistoleer (BerkleyBerkley BooksBerkley Books is an imprint of Penguin Group that began as an independent company in 1955. It was established by Charles Byrne and Frederic Klein, who were working for Avon and formed "Chic News Company". They renamed it Berkley Publishing Co. in 1955. They soon found a niche in science fiction...
: New York, 1995) - The Friends of Pancho Villa (Berkley: New York, 1996)
- In the Rogue Blood (AvonAvon (publishers)Avon Publications was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. As of 2010, it is an imprint of HarperCollins, publishing primarily romance novels.-History:...
: New York, 1997) - Red Grass River (Avon: New York, 1998)
- Wildwood Boys (William Morrow: New York, 2000)
- A World of Thieves (William Morrow: New York, 2002)
- Under the Skin (William Morrow: New York, 2003)
- Handsome Harry (William Morrow: New York, 2004)
- The Killings of Stanley Ketchel (William Morrow: New York, 2005)
- Country of the Bad Wolfes (Cinco Puntos Press: El Paso, 2012)
Collections of Short Works
- Borderlands (Avon Books: New York, 1999)
REFERENCES