Sonic Wilderness: Wild Vinyl Records

Mark Harris (1922) wrote novels for more than fifty years. He is best known for four novels about the life of major-league baseball player Henry W. Wiggen, including The Southpaw (1953) and Bang the Drum Slowly (1956) He also wrote the screenplay for the film version of Bang the Drum Slowly.

In 1946, Harris made a splash with his first novel, Trumpet to the World, a book about a young black soldier who married a white woman. Many of Harris's other novels have dealt with academic life, and yet more of his novels are highly informed by autobiographical experience. Harris has also published a collection of his articles entitled Short Work of It, as well as the play Friedman and Son and a unique biography of Saul Bellow.