Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney

First published in 1998, Leeming’s landmark biography of Beauford Delaney returns to print

Long out of print, this new edition of David Leeming’s landmark biography of Beauford Delaney (1901–79) features an introduction by Hilton Als. Leeming, also the author of James Baldwin’s acclaimed 1994 biography, delves into the captivating life of one of the most significant Black artists of our time. With rare affection, tact and insight, he paints a vivid portrait of an artist who defied convention and left an indelible mark on both art history and everyone he encountered—including a diverse array of writers, artists and musicians, from Henry Miller and Jean Genet to Baldwin and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Tracing Delaney’s humble beginnings in a deeply religious family in Knoxville, Tennessee, to New York, to his untimely demise in a Parisian asylum, Leeming draws not only on his close friendship with the artist but also journals, notebooks, letters and critical reviews, guiding the reader through the evolution of his practice and his remarkable life. As Als writes in his introduction: “Sadly, there are many ways for the queer Black boy to die—but also, many ways for him to live. Delaney saved his own life through art, the making of worlds based on what he saw in his internal and external universe."
David Adams Leeming (born 1937) is an American philologist and Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The World of Myth (1990), James Baldwin: A Biography (1994) and the Oxford Companion to World Mythology (2005). He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.