Writing Career
Motley grew up in Englewood, Illinois, South Side, Chicago, in one of the only African-American families residing there. He is related to the noted artist Archibald Motley. The two were raised as brothers, although in actuality Archibald was Willard's uncle. He was hired by Robert S. Abbott to write a children's column called "Bud Says" under the pseudonym Bud Billikin, for the Chicago Defender. He graduated from Champlain grammar school, and Englewood High School.
He traveled to New York, California and the western states, earning a living through various menial jobs, as well as by writing for the radio and newspapers. 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 was an immediate hit, selling 47,000 copies during its first three weeks in print. In 1949 it became 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 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 "Let No Man Write My Epitaph".
The bulk of Motley's archive is held in Rare Books and Special Collections at Northern Illinois University.
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