"Oscar Micheaux's name is emblazoned on a golden star on Hollywood Boulevard and on a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Director's Guild of America. . . . Yet this pioneering African-American novelist, screenplay writer, producer and director was forgotten for decades after his heydey in the late 1920s and '30s, and is relatively unknown today. . . . Bowser and Spence study Micheaux's early career up to 1929, examining both the African-American and mainstream social and political contexts surrounding his work. . . . This engaging, freshly researched work . . . is an important contribution to both U.S. history and media studies."-Publishers Weekly

"Bowser and Spence's thoughtful and persuasive study concentrates on the years proceeding the Depression, when Micheaux made his silent films. . . . The authors show Micheaux capitalizing on a convergence of several factors, most notably the arrival of mass movies to the cities, the proliferation of movie houses catering to them and the emergence of an urban working population with money to spend on entertainment. They suggest that Micheaux understood these folks, knew they were 'people who still felt hopeful about sharing the American dream . . . and he felt that he knew what the audience wanted.'"-Washington Post

"The authors further suggest that Micheaux's use of minstrel-show stereotypes was an attempt to show the pernicious effects of 'misplaced values and low self-worth.' . . . Micheaux did indeed write himself into history and what we understand as film hitory will have to be reconsidered to encompass his achievement."-London Review of Books

"Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence project an image of a man who possessed great charisma, and was not afraid to use it. Micheaux's skilful self-promotion was no doubt essential to his success in the competitive and tightly monitored race-picture business. . . . His films also suggest a man deeply affected by the difficulties of African American life in the years following the First World War."-Times Literary Supplement

"The authors provide us with a carefully researched picture of the social and political concerns of black audiences during an historical moment when they rose up, partly in response to The Birth of a Nation, and tried to redefine themselves as a single community in order to combat their misrepresentation in the mass media. This aspect of the study makes the book important and worthwhile, a tremendous contribution to the history of spectatorship and an excellent map for much-needed additional research on the race-picture movement, its filmmakers and actors, its production and exhibition methods, and its audiences."-Cineaste

"Given [Oscar Micheaux's] importance as one of the seminal figures in American film, Writing Himself Into History, Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence's scholarly examination of Micheaux serves a dual purpose. Through six essays, they analyze Micheaux's work, how it was received by both blacks and whites, and how his films encouraged fresh discussions about race. But Bowser and Spence's book also rescues the filmmaker's accomplishments from decades of obscurity."-The Boston Globe

"Bowser and Spence offer a detailed history of Micheaux's productions during the silent era, drawn from primary sources. Lucidly written and carefully researched, with an emphasis on historical data rather than posturing, Writing Himself into History is a pleasure to read."-The Independent

"The details of Micheaux's personal and artistic desire to overcome the institutional and commercial obstacles he faced provide more fertile ground for the sort of auteurist analysis Bowser and Spence undertake, allowing the layers of autobiographical simulacra and veiled intertextual references that Micheaux obsessively worked into his projects to justify the metaphor of writing and inscription used by the authors throughout. . . . In their examination of the three extant silent films (The Symbol of the Unconquered., Within Our Gates and Body and Soul). . . Browser and Spence provide a much-needed reading of the situation of women in the philosophy of racial uplift."-afterimge

"After decades of neglect by film critics, the cinema of Oscar Micheaux is undergoing a renaissance, from the rediscovery and restoration of his early films to the first book-length studies. . . . Bowser and Spence focus solely on the 20 silent films Micheaux directed between 1919 and 1929 . . . [and] the reader gets a strong feel for the cultural milieu of Micheaux's work. The authors carefully interlace their own critiques of these films with contemporary African American press responses, details on moviegoers in an era of 'segregated cinemas,' and biographical information derived from interviews with the director's family and others involved in early African American cinema. The plentiful production stills highlight this highly readable narrative. . . . Highly recommended for all film and black studies collections."-Library Journal

"With this fascinating and thorough study of independent pioneer Oscar Micheaux, Bowser and Spence partially redress the neglect of contributions by African American filmmakers in the silent period. The authors base this cultural study on original (and impressively exhaustive) research of Micheaux as artist and businessman and of his novels and silent films, his spectators, and the 'colored' theatres that exhibited his works-weaving these vibrant threads together both to chronicle the factual history of Micheaux and his works and to draw out the emerging myth of this entrepreneur. . . . Heartily recommended for all students, fans, and researchers in film studies."-Choice

"Going to silent films was an 'event' for African Americans. Bowser and Spence take pains to scrutinize this phenomenon. They pay particular attention to the reviews of the time and shed considerable new light on the critics Lester A. Walton, Romeo Dougherty, Theophilus Lewis, and Juli Jones. . . . Free of jargon and hyperbole, [Writing Himself Into History] is a total history encompassing the artist, his audience, and his era."-The Journal of American History

"The authors . . . carefully examine production records, reviews of the day, stills of lost scenes, and the existing footage itself to make the argument that Micheaux controversially differentiated himself from other directors, dealing with racial issues by refusing to romanticize his own people through simplistically 'uplifting' stories. As Bowser and Spence write, 'Appropriating . . . stereotypes for a knowing audience, Micheaux redefined them not only to expose them, but also, in a remedial effort, to raise the consciousness of the audience in order to motivate change.'

"Other parts . . . include a solidly researched biography that sorts out the true facts from Micheaux's 'biographical legend,' and a chapter on how Micheaux impacted the Black community."-Directors Guild of America Magazine

"Writing Himself Into History is no mere biography. Bowser and Spence focus on Micheaux's silent films . . . but they also pay critical attention to the fascinating social context of these works. The authors explore in detail the audience for these so-called 'race films' and explore what that audience can tell us about film, race, and America. Writing Himself Into History explores the emergent urban African-American culture following the great migration north that came to redefine American cities by the early part of the 20^th century. . . . The book is a necessary reminder of Micheaux's unique importance."-Baltimore City Paper

"This thoroughly researched and readable examination of the work of African American novelist and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux attempts to recreate for the reader the context in which his work was created, distributed, and received. . . . A long overdue text that confirms the significance of an important and often underrated figure in early American film history."-Rain Taxi

"The strength of the book lies in the latter sections, since the authors provide us with a carefully researched picture of the social and political concerns of black audiences during an historical moment when they rose up, partly in response to The Birth of a Nation, and tried to redefine themselves as a single community in order to combat their misrepresentation in the mass media. This aspect of the study makes the book important and worthwhile, a tremendous contribution to the history of spectatorship and an excellent map for much-needed additional research on the race-picture movement, its filmmakers and actors, its production and exhibition methods, and its audiences."-Cineaste

"In reinterpreting Micheaux as a politically progressive figure . . . . Bowser, and Spence add much to our appreciation of the social meanings of Micheaux's titles. . . . No doubt, the life and art of Oscar Micheaux will prove to be fertile scholarly ground for some time to come."-Film & History

"This is a marvelous piece of scholarship, bringing a new seriousness and sophistication to Micheaux's work and his life. The recovery of Micheaux letters, articles, and statements is magnificent, as is much of the information about Race movies and theaters."-Clyde Taylor, author of The Mask of Art

"The first detailed, book-length examination of the legendary Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux and his career in the silent era. Writing Himself into History is of immeasurable importance to the fields of film studies, media studies, ethnic studies, and African American history."-Matthew Bernstein, editor of Controlling Hollywood and co-editor of Visions of the East (both from Rutgers University Press)

Writing Himself into History is an eagerly anticipated analysis of the career and artistry surrounding the legendary Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. With the exception of Spike Lee, Micheaux is the most famous-and prolific-African American director in film history. Between 1918 and 1948 he made more than forty "Race pictures," movies made for and about African Americans. A man of immense creativity, he also wrote seven novels.

Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence concentrate here on the first decade of Micheaux's career, when Micheaux produced and directed more than twenty silent features and built a reputation as a controversial artist and maverick entrepreneur. Placing his work firmly within his social and cultural milieu, the authors also examine Micheaux's family background and life experience. They provide a close textual analysis of his surviving silent films (The Symbol of the Unconquered, Within Our Gates, and Body and Soul), and highlight the rivalry between production companies, dilemmas of assimilation versus a separate cultural identity, and gender and class issues. Writing Himself into History also analyzes Micheaux's career as a novelist in relation to his work as a filmmaker.

Pearl Bowser, founder of the African Diaspora Images collection, specializes in African and African American film. She co-directed the award-winning documentary Midnight Ramble: Oscar Micheaux and the Story of Race Movies. Louise Spence is an associate professor and coordinator of media studies at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut and has published extensively in scholarly journals and anthologies. Thulani Davis is a writer, author of the novels Maker of Saints and 1959 and contributor to Malcolm X: The Great Photographs and the biographical film W.E.B. Du Bois.