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Biography
American

James McBride

1957

James McBride — journalist, musician, and novelist — won the National Book Award for The Good Lord Bird (2013), a picaresque novel about John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry narrated by a young enslaved boy who is mistaken for a girl. His memoir The Color of Water (1996) — about his white Jewish mother who raised twelve Black children in the Red Hook housing projects of Brooklyn — sold over 2 million copies and became one of the most beloved American memoirs. Deacon King Kong (2020) and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023) confirmed him as one of America's most important living novelists.

Past sales0
PeriodContemporary
NationalityAmerican
1. Biography

A short life of the author

James McBride (b. 1957) was born on 11 September 1957 in Brooklyn, New York. He is one of twelve children raised by his white Jewish mother, Ruth McBride Jordan, in the Red Hook housing projects. He studied journalism at Oberlin College and earned a master’s from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a saxophonist and composer who has played with Anita Baker, Gary Burton, and others.

Life and Career

The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother (1996) — a dual memoir alternating between McBride’s voice and his mother’s — spent over two years on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 2 million copies. Ruth McBride Jordan’s story — a Polish Jewish immigrant who married a Black man in the 1940s, founded a Baptist church, and raised twelve children who all graduated from college — became one of the most celebrated American memoirs.

Miracle at St. Anna (2002) — about the Buffalo Soldiers in World War II Italy — was adapted as a Spike Lee film (2008). Song Yet Sung (2008) explored the antebellum Eastern Shore of Maryland.

The Good Lord Bird (2013) — narrated by Onion, a young enslaved boy who joins John Brown’s band disguised as a girl — won the National Book Award for Fiction. The novel’s picaresque comedy and its irreverent treatment of one of American history’s most mythologised figures were revelatory. It was adapted as a Showtime limited series (2020) starring Ethan Hawke.

Deacon King Kong (2020) — a sprawling, joyful novel set in the housing projects of 1960s Brooklyn — and The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023) — about a multiracial community in 1920s Pottstown, Pennsylvania — confirmed McBride as one of America’s essential novelists.

Major Works and Themes

McBride writes about communities — the bonds between people of different races, religions, and backgrounds who build lives together in spite of systemic forces designed to separate them. His fiction is joyful, comic, and deeply humane.

Key Works

  • The Color of Water (1996)
  • The Good Lord Bird (2013)
  • Deacon King Kong (2020)
  • The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (2023)

Collecting McBride

The Color of Water (1996, Riverhead Books) brings $30–$80.

The Good Lord Bird (2013, Riverhead) — the National Book Award winner — brings $30–$100 for fine firsts. McBride signs at events.