Willard Motley

Willard Francis Motley (July 14, 1909 – March 4, 1965) was an American author. Beginning as a teenager, Motley published a column in the African-American oriented Chicago Defender newspaper under the pen-name Bud Billiken. He worked as a freelance writer, and later founded and published the Hull House Magazine and worked in the Federal Writers' Project. Motley's first and best known novel was Knock on Any Door, which was made into a movie of the same name (1949).

Biography Early life and career Motley was born and grew up in the Englewood neighborhood, South Side, Chicago, in one of the few African-American families residing in that neighborhood at the time. The family was Catholic. His grandfather, Archibald Motley Sr. was a Pullman porter who raised him as a son. His grandmother Mary ("Mae") was a homemaker. He and the noted artist Archibald Motley Jr. were raised as brothers, although Archibald was in fact Willard's uncle; Willard's mother, Florence (known as "Flossie") moved to New York City after he was born and left him to be raised by her parents. Returning to Chicago in 1939, he lived near the Maxwell Street Market, which was to figure prominently in his later writing. He became associated with Hull House, and helped found the Hull House Magazine, in which some of his fiction appeared. In 1940 he wrote for the Works Progress Administration Federal Writers' Project along with Richard Wright and Nelson Algren.

In 1947, his first novel, Knock on Any Door, appeared to critical acclaim. A work of gritty naturalism, it concerns the life of Nick Romano, an Italian-American altar boy who turns to crime because of poverty and the difficulties of the immigrant experience; it is Romano who says the famous phrase: "Live fast, die young and have a good-looking corpse!" It was an immediate hit, selling 47,000 copies during its first three weeks in print. In 1949, it was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart. In response to critics who charged Motley with avoiding issues of race by writing about white characters, Motley said: "My race is the human race." His second novel, We Fished All Night (1948), was not hailed as a success, and after it appeared Motley moved to Mexico to start over. His third novel, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, picks up the story of Knock on Any Door. Columbia Pictures made it into a movie in 1960. Ella Fitzgerald's music for the film was released on the album Ella Fitzgerald Sings Songs from the Soundtrack of "Let No Man Write My Epitaph".

Criticism According to the citation statement for the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame awards, "Motley was criticized in his life for being a black man writing about white characters, a middle-class man writing about the lower class, and a closeted homosexual writing about heterosexual urges. But those more kindly disposed to his work, and there were plenty, admired his grit and heart....Chicago was more complicated than just its racial or sexual tensions, and as a writer his exploration was expansive...." Motley was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2014.

Death and legacy On March 4, 1965, Motley died of intestinal gangrene in Mexico City, Mexico. Some sources say he was 52, giving his birthdate as July 14, 1912; The bulk of Motley's archive is held in the University Libraries, Rare Books and Special Collections, at Northern Illinois University.

Since 1929, Chicago has held an annual Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic (acknowledging his pen name during his early career at the Chicago Defender) on the second Saturday of August. The parade travels through the city's Bronzeville, Grand Boulevard and Washington Park neighborhoods on the south side.