The Life and Times of Joseph Delaney, 1904-1991 by Frederick C. Moffatt

What a book!  What a story!  What amazing art!  Joseph Delaney was born in Knoxville in 1904, the son of a Methodist minister who was a traveling minister serving East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia until 1915, and then returned to Knoxville. Joseph dropped out of school in the 9th grade and held a series of menial jobs and got into trouble with alcohol and the law. In 1922, at the age of 18. he left Knoxville and traveled around the country often jumping trains for transportation. In 1930 he settle in Greenwich Village on Manhattan Island. Fortunately, he entered the Art Students League under the tutelage of Thomas Hart Benton, the illustrious muralist. In 1986 he returned to Knoxville, accepting a position as visiting artist in the University of Tennessee's Art Department. He lived in Knoxville the remainder of his life. "This book is an important contribution to the study of African American art and of American art in the twentieth century. It makes use of previously unexamined pa