http://www.rageinparis.com/new-gallery-1 daily 0.75 2014-12-02 http://www.rageinparis.com/new-gallery daily 0.75 2014-05-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/537fab71e4b011aa8abe3738/537faba3e4b037a670024d86/1400878664684/RIP_MOCKUP.jpg New Gallery https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fb648e4b09c02ec8f9303/1400878664684/RIP_MOCKUP.jpg New Gallery https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/537fab71e4b011aa8abe3738/537faef3e4b0b1911b9e3f32/1400876786270/ New Gallery https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/537fab71e4b011aa8abe3738/53ad9f54e4b06db1f4bcff22/1403923697596/ New Gallery http://www.rageinparis.com/portfolio daily 0.75 2014-06-27 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/537fb7c2e4b0476310fada55/537fba64e4b014795b1c602e/1400879717549/AM_Paris-riot-1934-Photo+of+Place+de+la+concorde.jpg Main Page https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ad9a49e4b0759712564641/1400879717549/AM_Paris-riot-1934-Photo+of+Place+de+la+concorde.jpg Main Page http://www.rageinparis.com/blog daily 0.75 2012-08-16 http://www.rageinparis.com/kirbys-history daily 0.75 2014-08-14 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add21de4b0b3e2d96514ec/1407354513451/Book+Cover+photo+of+KW+for+Rage+taken+by+Marc+in+Saugerties%2C+N.Y.+October+2013.jpg Kirby's history - Kirby Williams, 2014 Many of my life experiences and encounters have fed into “Rage in Paris.” Although the timeframe of the book is the 1895 to 1936 period, I have lived long enough and seen enough to recognize that there are many dark currents in the human psyche, which persist in spite of the works of God and man; they resurface at times of great social transition and upheaval. We are living such times now. That’s why I feel that “Rage in Paris,” while both a crime and historical novel, is also a cautionary tale. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ecea7ae4b085b1e2a0a49e/1407354513451/Book+Cover+photo+of+KW+for+Rage+taken+by+Marc+in+Saugerties%2C+N.Y.+October+2013.jpg Kirby's history - Kirby Williams, 2014 Many of my life experiences and encounters have fed into “Rage in Paris.” Although the timeframe of the book is the 1895 to 1936 period, I have lived long enough and seen enough to recognize that there are many dark currents in the human psyche, which persist in spite of the works of God and man; they resurface at times of great social transition and upheaval. We are living such times now. That’s why I feel that “Rage in Paris,” while both a crime and historical novel, is also a cautionary tale. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb34ee4b07ed0b5e3ed38/1407354534261/Kirby+Williams+at+six+years+old+in+Parkway+Village%2C+Queens%2CNY+in+1947%2C+shortly+after+moving+from+Washington%2CD.C.+first+close+meeting+with+a+white+person%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's history - My childhood I was born in Clinton, Oklahoma in July 1940, the son of what was then referred to as “colored” Texans. “Home” in Texas was a topsy-turvy world. My white-looking grandfather would take me into town to buy clothes and once, cowboy boots, but I couldn’t try them on in the store. Meanwhile, masses of family would greet our return “from the North”, the ones on my mother’s side invariably looking white or near white and those on my father’s side looking like native Americans or the Africans that I had seen in World Atlases or in the U.N. village. This set me thinking about questions of racial and ethnic identity and all of its ironies and absurdities when I was not yet eight years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb080e4b0f941aa4e6887/1407962194549/Mom+at+18+10April2014.jpg Kirby's history - Mom, 18 years old My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She became one of the first black Assistant Principals in the New York City Public School system and ended her career as a Principal. I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. Her father, James Henry Kirby, a large-scale watermelon farmer in the “watermelon capital of America,” was a blue-eyed man of British yeoman stock. He had ten brothers and sisters of similar appearance, and two of the sisters went off to live in the mid-West as white people. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ee4b0f941aa4e6881/1408035437296/Images+from+Nikon+camera%2C+22July+2012to25+October2012+429.jpg Kirby's history - My mother, 100 years old! My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She’s still alive and living independently in Manhattan - I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ce4b09759f181d075/1407354578669/Dad+at+UN+1960s.jpg Kirby's history - My Father Marshall Everett Williams, was born, literally, in a log cabin in Bryan, Texas in 1912 (deceased 1993). He was an only child brought up by a snuff-taking part-Seminole woman who ran the household of a genteel white lady in Bryan. Although uneducated, his mother valued education above everything, including religion, and drummed its value into my father’s head. She had used her pistol to run her husband off, because she thought that, being a “lowly” railway porter, he would be a bad influence on her brilliant son. When the United Nations was set up in New York early in 1946, my father moved the family to New York, becoming one of the first Americans in the U.N. Secretariat. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adc6a8e4b07d14da721376/1407354623226/Phoebe+Kirby+born+ca.+1850+Great+Grandmother+of+Kirby+Williams+photo+ca.+1900%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's history - My Maternal Great Grandmother Phoebe Kirby - Possibly born a slave ca. 1850 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07be4b0f941aa4e687b/1407446628675/Dad+and+GrandDad+Clinton%2C+OK+1941.jpg Kirby's history - Dad and Grandad, Clinton, Oklahoma - 1941 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0af2922e2b256/1407354674856/KirbyHamilton.jpeg-Graduation+Hamilton+Class+of+1961+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's history - Me at graduation - Hamilton College From Stuyvesant High School, after turning down Harvard, I went on to Hamilton College near the small up-state village of Clinton, New York as one the few blacks (or Jews) admitted under its then-existing admissions quota system. Unfortunately, things started really going sour when I came up against Hamilton’s social system which, at the time, revolved around preponderantly Greek-letter national fraternities which had convenants and practices which served to exclude Jews, blacks and, for some fraternities, I believe, even Catholics. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add012e4b06e52f1cf527e/1407357095697/KirbyParis.jpeg Kirby's history - Me in Paris, 1962 I never really settled back into New York and American life after my “escape” from Atlanta where I had been personally subjected to segregation. I remembered my great uncle’s tales about France - he had served during the First World War in America’s segregated army - and my readings of Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald - and I set sail for Le Havre on 5 October 1962, never to return to America to live.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb081e4b0f941aa4e6895/1407354710705/num%C3%A9risation0001.jpg Kirby's history - My English wife - Liz We'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in December 2016. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07fe4b0af2922e2b246/1407962258852/K+receiving+service+medal+from+Director-General+Federico+Mayor+in+1997.jpg Kirby's history - My life as a UN Diplomat After studying at the Sorbonne to learn French and then teaching English, I entered a United Nations Organization in Paris as a Junior Professional and spent the next thirty years founding a family and advancing into the Directorial and Diplomatic ranks of the Organization. I had the pleasure of either meeting or seeing at close hand some of the Greats of the World, from General DeGaulle, to Pope John Paul II, François Mitterrand and Nelson Mandela. Outside of work, I got to meet or make contact with writers as varied as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, James Jones, James Michener and Gregory Corso and musicians and actors such as Bud Powell, Johnny Griffin, Aaron Bridgers, Marpessa Dawn, Gordon Heath and Memphis Slim. I also met or came into contact with a host of French artists, including Jean Genet, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Arthur Adamov and Marcel Carne, as well as the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0f941aa4e6899/1407354778139/num%C3%A9risation0015.jpg Kirby's history - Publisher Bill Henderson and author Kirby Williams Kirby and Bill met in college in the late 1950's. They have been friends ever since. http://www.rageinparis.com/home daily 1.0 2015-03-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/5445184de4b0f7692c744760/1413814351482/RIP_CoverBookFront_Standing_background.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/54f9bca6e4b0dc4428e41a59/1413814351482/RIP_CoverBookFront_Standing_background.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/53e28dbae4b05268e948b948/1407356377744/RIP_MOCKUP_2.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/544511f7e4b0178deca9030e/1413812728713/RIP_LandingPage_PWQUOTE.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/547e12fee4b040ec05d7abe2/1417553325082/ HOME - Rage in Paris Kirby Williams grew up in a bi-racial family - one side was black and one side appeared more white than black. This experience combined with first degree experience of the Jim Crow laws and the Civil Rights Movement led to Kirby leaving America in hope of a better life elsewhere - in Paris. Though a work of fiction, Rage in Paris, Kirby's first novel, is rooted in both personal and international events that shake our world till this day. www.rageinparis.com Published by Pushcart Press https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/547e2532e4b0f8afe1840c24/1417553779862/ HOME - Rage in Paris https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/547e2247e4b030b5682c2a30/1417552456529/RIP_LandingPage_Kirkus.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/5445185be4b0f7692c74477f/1413814367295/RIP_CoverBookFront_Standing_background.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/544519c9e4b09c45ad2916a9/1413814732848/RIP_LandingPage_BILLQUOTE+Long.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/547e27a0e4b04214c60a4382/1417553874504/ HOME - Rage in Paris https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/547e2242e4b030b5682c2a14/1417552451609/RIP_LandingPage_Foreward.jpg HOME https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53ad9eede4b0788618e2e979/54f9bc74e4b017fadc648ab3/1425652902822/ HOME - Rage In Paris - Author Kirby Williams and Publisher Bill Henderson in conversation Author Kirby Williams sat down with Publisher Bill Henderson to discuss Rage in Paris Shot at LTV in East Hampton, NY 2015 http://www.rageinparis.com/scenes-from-the-novel daily 0.75 2014-08-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53e28a68e4b075b683fd52fc/1407355496354/AM_Paris-riot-1934-Photo+of+Place+de+la+concorde.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Place de la Concorde - Paris riot 1934 It was one of the major political crises during the Third Republic (1871–1940), and it entered the popular consciousness, especially that of the socialists, as an attempt to organize a fascist coup d'état. As a result of the actions of that day, several anti-fascist organisations were created, such as the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, in an attempt to thwart the rise of fascism in France. More information here. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb08fe4b0af2922e2b275/1407355496354/AM_Paris-riot-1934-Photo+of+Place+de+la+concorde.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Place de la Concorde - Paris riot 1934 It was one of the major political crises during the Third Republic (1871–1940), and it entered the popular consciousness, especially that of the socialists, as an attempt to organize a fascist coup d'état. As a result of the actions of that day, several anti-fascist organisations were created, such as the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, in an attempt to thwart the rise of fascism in France. More information here. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb09de4b06465148920ef/1407354892497/DSCN0844.JPG Scenes from the Novel - French National Assembly, 2014 Target of the attempted Fascist Coup d'Etat of 6 February 1934. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0f941aa4e68b1/1407354912816/Author+at+Les+Deux+Magots+Caf%C3%A9%2C+Saint-Germain-d%C3%A8s-Pr%C3%A9s%2CParis+%2CScene+of+6+February+1934+battle+in+Chapter+1+of+Rage+in+Paris+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Scene of 6 February 1934 battle Les Deux Magots Café - one of the scenes of the 6 February 1934 battle. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb08fe4b0af2922e2b277/1407354941176/Author+seated+in+front+of+La+P%C3%A9rouse+restaurant%2C+where+Urby+finally+meets+Daphne+Robinson%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - La Pérouse restaurant Where Urby finally meets Daphne Robinson. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0af2922e2b279/1407354959356/Building+on+rue+Caulaincourt%2C+Montmartre%2C+Paris+where+Stanley+Bontemps+has+a+swanky+apartment%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Stanley Bontemps' swanky apartment Building on rue Caulaincourt, Montmartre, Paris https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0af2922e2b27d/1407354968427/DSCN0812+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Moulin Rouge Montmartre, Paris where a number of American jazz groups played in the 1920s and 1930s https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb0a1e4b0646514892108/1407355037075/H%C3%B4tel+LUTETIA%2C+Left+Bank%2C+Paris+where+Urby+and+Jean+Fletcher+find+refuge+from+the+riot+of+6+February+1934%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Hôtel LUTETIA, Left Bank, Paris Where Urby and Jean Fletcher find refuge from the riot of 6 February 1934. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb097e4b09759f181d096/1407355058437/DSCN0824+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Metro at Place Pigalle, Montmartre, Paris Subway station often used by Urby Brown. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb094e4b0f941aa4e68c8/1407355114183/DSCN0820+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Rue Pigalle The La Belle Princesse nightclub would have been located on this street https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb09ce4b06465148920eb/1407355140177/DSCN0842.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Eiffel Tower and the Alexander III bridge "The Eiffel Tower loomed like a giant black skeleton in the darkness." - Urby Brown, Rage in Paris http://www.rageinparis.com/short-film daily 0.75 2014-12-09 http://www.rageinparis.com/menu daily 0.75 2013-10-29 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fae2ee4b0c9ba92a42a9b/1383061091631/menu-top.jpg Menu Source https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fae2ee4b0c9ba92a42a9c/1383061167208/menu-bottom.jpg Menu Source https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fae2ee4b0c9ba92a42a9a/1352827597100/menu-01.jpg Menu http://www.rageinparis.com/about daily 0.75 2014-06-27 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fb9cbe4b03c02ffcb929f/1400879574318/ The Story https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/537fb88ae4b0f959c2bbb9a7/1383533800499/puppy2.jpg The Story http://www.rageinparis.com/kirbyshistory daily 0.75 2014-08-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ce4b09759f181d075/1407354578669/Dad+at+UN+1960s.jpg Kirby's History - My Father Marshall Everett Williams, was born, literally, in a log cabin in Bryan, Texas in 1912 (deceased 1993). He was an only child brought up by a snuff-taking part-Seminole woman who ran the household of a genteel white lady in Bryan. Although uneducated, his mother valued education above everything, including religion, and drummed its value into my father’s head. She had used her pistol to run her husband off, because she thought that, being a “lowly” railway porter, he would be a bad influence on her brilliant son. When the United Nations was set up in New York early in 1946, my father moved the family to New York, becoming one of the first Americans in the U.N. Secretariat. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb081e4b0f941aa4e6895/1407354710705/num%C3%A9risation0001.jpg Kirby's History - My English wife - Liz We'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in December 2016. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add21de4b0b3e2d96514ec/1407354513451/Book+Cover+photo+of+KW+for+Rage+taken+by+Marc+in+Saugerties%2C+N.Y.+October+2013.jpg Kirby's History - Kirby Williams, 2014 Many of my life experiences and encounters have fed into “Rage in Paris.” Although the timeframe of the book is the 1895 to 1936 period, I have lived long enough and seen enough to recognize that there are many dark currents in the human psyche, which persist in spite of the works of God and man; they resurface at times of great social transition and upheaval. We are living such times now. That’s why I feel that “Rage in Paris,” while both a crime and historical novel, is also a cautionary tale. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07be4b0f941aa4e687b/1407446628675/Dad+and+GrandDad+Clinton%2C+OK+1941.jpg Kirby's History - Dad and Grandad, Clinton, Oklahoma - 1941 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ee4b0f941aa4e6881/1408035437296/Images+from+Nikon+camera%2C+22July+2012to25+October2012+429.jpg Kirby's History - My mother, 100 years old! My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She’s still alive and living independently in Manhattan - I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb080e4b0f941aa4e6887/1407962194549/Mom+at+18+10April2014.jpg Kirby's History - Mom, 18 years old My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She became one of the first black Assistant Principals in the New York City Public School system and ended her career as a Principal. I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. Her father, James Henry Kirby, a large-scale watermelon farmer in the “watermelon capital of America,” was a blue-eyed man of British yeoman stock. He had ten brothers and sisters of similar appearance, and two of the sisters went off to live in the mid-West as white people. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0f941aa4e6899/1407354778139/num%C3%A9risation0015.jpg Kirby's History - Publisher Bill Henderson and author Kirby Williams Kirby and Bill met in college in the late 1950's. They have been friends ever since. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adc6a8e4b07d14da721376/1407354623226/Phoebe+Kirby+born+ca.+1850+Great+Grandmother+of+Kirby+Williams+photo+ca.+1900%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's History - My Maternal Great Grandmother Phoebe Kirby - Possibly born a slave ca. 1850 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add012e4b06e52f1cf527e/1407357095697/KirbyParis.jpeg Kirby's History - Me in Paris, 1962 I never really settled back into New York and American life after my “escape” from Atlanta where I had been personally subjected to segregation. I remembered my great uncle’s tales about France - he had served during the First World War in America’s segregated army - and my readings of Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald - and I set sail for Le Havre on 5 October 1962, never to return to America to live.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb34ee4b07ed0b5e3ed38/1407354534261/Kirby+Williams+at+six+years+old+in+Parkway+Village%2C+Queens%2CNY+in+1947%2C+shortly+after+moving+from+Washington%2CD.C.+first+close+meeting+with+a+white+person%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's History - My childhood I was born in Clinton, Oklahoma in July 1940, the son of what was then referred to as “colored” Texans. “Home” in Texas was a topsy-turvy world. My white-looking grandfather would take me into town to buy clothes and once, cowboy boots, but I couldn’t try them on in the store. Meanwhile, masses of family would greet our return “from the North”, the ones on my mother’s side invariably looking white or near white and those on my father’s side looking like native Americans or the Africans that I had seen in World Atlases or in the U.N. village. This set me thinking about questions of racial and ethnic identity and all of its ironies and absurdities when I was not yet eight years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0af2922e2b256/1407354674856/KirbyHamilton.jpeg-Graduation+Hamilton+Class+of+1961+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Kirby's History - Me at graduation - Hamilton College From Stuyvesant High School, after turning down Harvard, I went on to Hamilton College near the small up-state village of Clinton, New York as one the few blacks (or Jews) admitted under its then-existing admissions quota system. Unfortunately, things started really going sour when I came up against Hamilton’s social system which, at the time, revolved around preponderantly Greek-letter national fraternities which had convenants and practices which served to exclude Jews, blacks and, for some fraternities, I believe, even Catholics. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07fe4b0af2922e2b246/1407962258852/K+receiving+service+medal+from+Director-General+Federico+Mayor+in+1997.jpg Kirby's History - My life as a UN Diplomat After studying at the Sorbonne to learn French and then teaching English, I entered a United Nations Organization in Paris as a Junior Professional and spent the next thirty years founding a family and advancing into the Directorial and Diplomatic ranks of the Organization. I had the pleasure of either meeting or seeing at close hand some of the Greats of the World, from General DeGaulle, to Pope John Paul II, François Mitterrand and Nelson Mandela. Outside of work, I got to meet or make contact with writers as varied as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, James Jones, James Michener and Gregory Corso and musicians and actors such as Bud Powell, Johnny Griffin, Aaron Bridgers, Marpessa Dawn, Gordon Heath and Memphis Slim. I also met or came into contact with a host of French artists, including Jean Genet, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Arthur Adamov and Marcel Carne, as well as the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. http://www.rageinparis.com/purchase daily 0.75 2014-12-03 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ebd0f6e4b0147fda6d1ffd/1407963389919/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ebd13be4b05e7f3c901d6f/1407963462213/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/547f0faee4b0bcb32acc4960/1417613230713/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/547f0f7de4b09a874870db77/1417613182749/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ebd11be4b0147fda6d203d/1407963473960/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ebd09ee4b00ee0deada88e/1407963298796/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/547f0fcfe4b0bcb32acc49c4/1417613263799/ Purchase Book https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ebd176e4b0f0c957d63840/1407963533021/ Purchase Book http://www.rageinparis.com/author daily 0.75 2014-08-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ce4b09759f181d075/1407354578669/Dad+at+UN+1960s.jpg Meet the Author - My Father Marshall Everett Williams, was born, literally, in a log cabin in Bryan, Texas in 1912 (deceased 1993). He was an only child brought up by a snuff-taking part-Seminole woman who ran the household of a genteel white lady in Bryan. Although uneducated, his mother valued education above everything, including religion, and drummed its value into my father’s head. She had used her pistol to run her husband off, because she thought that, being a “lowly” railway porter, he would be a bad influence on her brilliant son. When the United Nations was set up in New York early in 1946, my father moved the family to New York, becoming one of the first Americans in the U.N. Secretariat. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb081e4b0f941aa4e6895/1407354710705/num%C3%A9risation0001.jpg Meet the Author - My English wife - Liz We'll be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in December 2016. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add21de4b0b3e2d96514ec/1407354513451/Book+Cover+photo+of+KW+for+Rage+taken+by+Marc+in+Saugerties%2C+N.Y.+October+2013.jpg Meet the Author - Kirby Williams, 2014 Many of my life experiences and encounters have fed into “Rage in Paris.” Although the timeframe of the book is the 1895 to 1936 period, I have lived long enough and seen enough to recognize that there are many dark currents in the human psyche, which persist in spite of the works of God and man; they resurface at times of great social transition and upheaval. We are living such times now. That’s why I feel that “Rage in Paris,” while both a crime and historical novel, is also a cautionary tale. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07be4b0f941aa4e687b/1407446628675/Dad+and+GrandDad+Clinton%2C+OK+1941.jpg Meet the Author - Dad and Grandad, Clinton, Oklahoma - 1941 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07ee4b0f941aa4e6881/1408035437296/Images+from+Nikon+camera%2C+22July+2012to25+October2012+429.jpg Meet the Author - My mother, 100 years old! My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She’s still alive and living independently in Manhattan - I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb080e4b0f941aa4e6887/1407962194549/Mom+at+18+10April2014.jpg Meet the Author - Mom, 18 years old My mother, Mary Cochrane Kirby, was born in 1913 and was listed as a 'mulatto' in the census following. She became one of the first black Assistant Principals in the New York City Public School system and ended her career as a Principal. I learned from her only four years ago that she had witnessed a lynching in her hometown, Hempstead,Texas, when she was nine years old. Her father, James Henry Kirby, a large-scale watermelon farmer in the “watermelon capital of America,” was a blue-eyed man of British yeoman stock. He had ten brothers and sisters of similar appearance, and two of the sisters went off to live in the mid-West as white people. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0f941aa4e6899/1407354778139/num%C3%A9risation0015.jpg Meet the Author - Publisher Bill Henderson and author Kirby Williams Kirby and Bill met in college in the late 1950's. They have been friends ever since. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adc6a8e4b07d14da721376/1407354623226/Phoebe+Kirby+born+ca.+1850+Great+Grandmother+of+Kirby+Williams+photo+ca.+1900%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Meet the Author - My Maternal Great Grandmother Phoebe Kirby - Possibly born a slave ca. 1850 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53add012e4b06e52f1cf527e/1407357095697/KirbyParis.jpeg Meet the Author - Me in Paris, 1962 I never really settled back into New York and American life after my “escape” from Atlanta where I had been personally subjected to segregation. I remembered my great uncle’s tales about France - he had served during the First World War in America’s segregated army - and my readings of Ernest Hemingway, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and F. Scott Fitzgerald - and I set sail for Le Havre on 5 October 1962, never to return to America to live.   https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb34ee4b07ed0b5e3ed38/1407354534261/Kirby+Williams+at+six+years+old+in+Parkway+Village%2C+Queens%2CNY+in+1947%2C+shortly+after+moving+from+Washington%2CD.C.+first+close+meeting+with+a+white+person%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Meet the Author - My childhood I was born in Clinton, Oklahoma in July 1940, the son of what was then referred to as “colored” Texans. “Home” in Texas was a topsy-turvy world. My white-looking grandfather would take me into town to buy clothes and once, cowboy boots, but I couldn’t try them on in the store. Meanwhile, masses of family would greet our return “from the North”, the ones on my mother’s side invariably looking white or near white and those on my father’s side looking like native Americans or the Africans that I had seen in World Atlases or in the U.N. village. This set me thinking about questions of racial and ethnic identity and all of its ironies and absurdities when I was not yet eight years old. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb082e4b0af2922e2b256/1407354674856/KirbyHamilton.jpeg-Graduation+Hamilton+Class+of+1961+copied+2+June+2014.jpeg Meet the Author - Me at graduation - Hamilton College From Stuyvesant High School, after turning down Harvard, I went on to Hamilton College near the small up-state village of Clinton, New York as one the few blacks (or Jews) admitted under its then-existing admissions quota system. Unfortunately, things started really going sour when I came up against Hamilton’s social system which, at the time, revolved around preponderantly Greek-letter national fraternities which had convenants and practices which served to exclude Jews, blacks and, for some fraternities, I believe, even Catholics. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb06be4b09759f181d065/53adb07fe4b0af2922e2b246/1407962258852/K+receiving+service+medal+from+Director-General+Federico+Mayor+in+1997.jpg Meet the Author - My life as a UN Diplomat After studying at the Sorbonne to learn French and then teaching English, I entered a United Nations Organization in Paris as a Junior Professional and spent the next thirty years founding a family and advancing into the Directorial and Diplomatic ranks of the Organization. I had the pleasure of either meeting or seeing at close hand some of the Greats of the World, from General DeGaulle, to Pope John Paul II, François Mitterrand and Nelson Mandela. Outside of work, I got to meet or make contact with writers as varied as Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, James Jones, James Michener and Gregory Corso and musicians and actors such as Bud Powell, Johnny Griffin, Aaron Bridgers, Marpessa Dawn, Gordon Heath and Memphis Slim. I also met or came into contact with a host of French artists, including Jean Genet, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Arthur Adamov and Marcel Carne, as well as the Irish writer Samuel Beckett. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ad9cd8e4b0cf0d445655ef/1403887168746/ea.jpg Meet the Author http://www.rageinparis.com/the-story daily 0.75 2014-12-03 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/t/53ade0c9e4b0dcf59ef29e7e/1403904294183/ The Story http://www.rageinparis.com/scenesfromthenovel daily 0.75 2014-08-06 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb09de4b06465148920ef/1407354892497/DSCN0844.JPG Scenes from the Novel - French National Assembly, 2014 Target of the attempted Fascist Coup d'Etat of 6 February 1934. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb08fe4b0af2922e2b277/1407354941176/Author+seated+in+front+of+La+P%C3%A9rouse+restaurant%2C+where+Urby+finally+meets+Daphne+Robinson%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - La Pérouse restaurant Where Urby finally meets Daphne Robinson. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0af2922e2b279/1407354959356/Building+on+rue+Caulaincourt%2C+Montmartre%2C+Paris+where+Stanley+Bontemps+has+a+swanky+apartment%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Stanley Bontemps' swanky apartment Building on rue Caulaincourt, Montmartre, Paris https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb0a1e4b0646514892108/1407355037075/H%C3%B4tel+LUTETIA%2C+Left+Bank%2C+Paris+where+Urby+and+Jean+Fletcher+find+refuge+from+the+riot+of+6+February+1934%2C+copied+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Hôtel LUTETIA, Left Bank, Paris Where Urby and Jean Fletcher find refuge from the riot of 6 February 1934. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb08fe4b0af2922e2b275/1407355496354/AM_Paris-riot-1934-Photo+of+Place+de+la+concorde.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Place de la Concorde - Paris riot 1934 It was one of the major political crises during the Third Republic (1871–1940), and it entered the popular consciousness, especially that of the socialists, as an attempt to organize a fascist coup d'état. As a result of the actions of that day, several anti-fascist organisations were created, such as the Comité de vigilance des intellectuels antifascistes, in an attempt to thwart the rise of fascism in France. More information here. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb097e4b09759f181d096/1407355058437/DSCN0824+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Metro at Place Pigalle, Montmartre, Paris Subway station often used by Urby Brown. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb09ce4b06465148920eb/1407355140177/DSCN0842.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Eiffel Tower and the Alexander III bridge "The Eiffel Tower loomed like a giant black skeleton in the darkness." - Urby Brown, Rage in Paris https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb094e4b0f941aa4e68c8/1407355114183/DSCN0820+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Rue Pigalle The La Belle Princesse nightclub would have been located on this street https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0f941aa4e68b1/1407354912816/Author+at+Les+Deux+Magots+Caf%C3%A9%2C+Saint-Germain-d%C3%A8s-Pr%C3%A9s%2CParis+%2CScene+of+6+February+1934+battle+in+Chapter+1+of+Rage+in+Paris+2+June+2014.jpg Scenes from the Novel - Scene of 6 February 1934 battle Les Deux Magots Café - one of the scenes of the 6 February 1934 battle. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/537fa4b4e4b010747f07bb1e/53adb07de4b0af2922e2b245/53adb090e4b0af2922e2b27d/1407354968427/DSCN0812+%282%29.JPG Scenes from the Novel - Moulin Rouge Montmartre, Paris where a number of American jazz groups played in the 1920s and 1930s http://www.rageinparis.com/videoconversation daily 0.75 2015-03-06