Born June 20: E. Lynn Harris

In 1990, no publisher would take a chance on a first novel about a man torn between his girlfriend and his secret boyfriend, all of them black. Undaunted, the author, a successful IBM salesman who was used to breaking barriers, having been the first black editor of the yearbook at the University of Arkansas and the first black male Razorbacks cheerleader, decided to publish it himself. At black bookstores, book clubs, and beauty salons around Atlanta, he sold thousands of copies to gay men and straight women. A local sales rep mentioned the book’s popularity to the publisher of Anchor/Doubleday, which quickly republished that novel, Invisible Life, and all nine subsequent books by the phenomenal E. Lynn Harris, who has become a major star. Every one of his books has been a bestseller. His sixth and seventh novels, Not a Day Goes By and Any Way the Wind Blows, both debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. His author events regularly attract 900 people or more. Upbeat, optimistic, and romantic, his books never gloss over life’s struggles and pain. His memoir, What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, included his own coming out story as well as bouts with depression, drinking, low self-esteem, and a suicide attempt just before he decided to start writing. His most recent novel, I Say a Little Prayer, whose paperback edition is coming in August, confronts homophobia in black churches. To date his books have sold nearly four million copies.