his first book in 1970. The Omni-Americans contained a series of essays and reviews on such topics as protest literature and the Moynihan Report on black poverty. In the introduction, he wrote that "the United States is in actuality not a nation of black people and white people. It is a nation of multi-colored people." According to author Walker Percy, The Omni-Americans "may be the most important book on black-white relations in the United States, indeed on American culture, published in this generation." He followed that up with a non-fiction book about the American South called South to a Very Old Place (1971). It had begun as a reporting assignment by Harper's Magazine editor Willie Morris. South to a Very Old Place was reviewed by Toni Morrison in The New York Times and was a finalist for the National Book Awards. Starting with Train Whistle Guitar (1974), Murray wrote four novels that featured an alter ego named Scooter. The novels follow Scooter from childhood through college and into his career as a musician and writer. Murray wrote about the importance of blues and jazz music in such books as The Hero and the Blues (1973) and Stomping the Blues (1976). He received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Stomping the Blues. In addition, he collaborated with Count Basie on the latter's memoir Good Morning Blues (1985). He has held visiting lectureships, fellowships, and professorships at several institutions, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (1968), Colgate University (1970; 1973; 1982), the University of Massachusetts Boston (1971), the University of Missouri (1972), Emory University (1978), Drew University (1983), and Washington and Lee University (1993). From 1981 to 1983, he was an adjunct associate professor of writing at Barnard College. He received honorary doctorates from Colgate (Litt.D., 1975) and Spring Hill College (D.H.L., 1995). As noted, he became close friends with Ralph Ellison after college. Their relationship informed the thinking and writing of both men. Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray was published in 2000. Murray was also a friend of artist Romare Bearden. Bearden's six-panel collage The Block (1971) was inspired by the view from Murray's Harlem apartment. Murray later appeared in the 1980 documentary Bearden Plays Bearden. Murray received greater attention in the 1980s and 1990s due to his influence on critic Stanley Crouch and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. With Marsalis, Murray was the