Willard Motley, We Fished all Night

Robert E. Fleming (University of New Mexico)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1951

Places

United States, Illinois (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

We Fished All Night (1951) is the second novel of Willard Motley, an African American novelist. Following the success of his Knock on Any Door (1947), Motley turned to a new subject and a new approach. Unfortunately, his experiment produced a less unified, less powerful novel.

A conscientious objector during the war, Motley carefully noted how the war affected the civilian population and returning veterans. The book that he wrote from these observations reflected the harm done by the war. The entire population, Motley felt, became hardened and less tolerant of dissent. To prove his point he created three protagonists and followed them from before their induction into the army through the years immediately …

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435 words

Citation: Fleming, Robert E.. "We Fished all Night". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 March 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8706, accessed 24 November 2024.]

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