E. Lynn Harris Books In Order

Publication Order of Bentley L. Dean Books

Publication Order of Invisible Life Books

Publication Order of Yancey Harrington Braxton Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Born in Flint, Michigan Everette Lynn Harris was an American author, who wrote some of the bestselling books of his time. He was born on 20th June in the year 1955 and was found to be a gay. He was a successful African-American man and mainly wrote about people who faced problems of bisexuality and gay in the society. He was born as Everette Lynn Jeter and at the age of 3, he along with his mother moved to Little Rock in Arkansas. His surname changed to Harris when his mother married to Ben Harris. As a child his stepfather used to abuse E. Lynn Harris a lot and because of this his mother divorced his stepfather when Harris was 13 years of age. During his time in Little Rock he studied at Hall High School and at Forest Heights Junior High and was among the first African-American to do it. All the classmates of author Harris liked him very much and Becka Henry and Karen Krenz were two of his closest friends. Other places where author E. Lynn Harris had homes were Arkansas, Fayetteville, Georgia, Atlanta, Texas, and Houston. As compared to popular culture, his writings were slang and vernacular and he maintained an occasional emotion in it. While he was attending the University of Arkansas, he became the yearbook editor as well as a cheerleader and in doing this he became the first black male to do it. He has also done many other things in his college days like at the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity in his college he was the chapter president.

American author E. Lynn Harris has worked for 13 years at Hewlett-Packard, AT & T, and IBM as a computer salesman. While doing so he was living in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Texas and Dallas. There came a time in Harris’ life when he was very depressed and frustrated with his life. It was such a dark phase that he was drinking heavily and even attempted suicide. It was writing that gave author Harris a will to live and keep going. In order to start writing his first novel Harris quit his job as a computer salesman. Invisible Life was his first novel, but was unable to make a deal with any of the publishing company. But Harris never left his hope, he published the book himself and started selling his first book from the trunk of his car. The DoubleDay publishers, later published his novels and ten of his novels gained the status of the New York Times bestseller. Harris has written a personal memoir alongside fiction and is titled ‘What Becomes of the Brokenhearted’. While author E. Lynn Harris was at a business meeting in Los Angeles, he died on 23th July, 2009. He was staying at the Beverly Hills’ Peninsula Hotel in California and was found unconscious. He was immediately taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. It was found after the autopsy that he was having a heart disease. He had also blacked out and fallen ill while traveling on a train on the same day, but was completely fine after some time.

The American author E. Lynn Harris has written mostly standalone novels and ‘Invisible Life’ is among the first novel that he has written. This novel was first published in the year 1991 and then again published by Anchor Books on 15th February, 1994. The book consists the story of Raymond Tyler, who is a young man coming of age. Studying at a law school, having a girlfriend and making career choices, were all part of Raymond’s life. He knew that everyone faces small-small issues here and there in life every time, but he has something to confront that is more terrifying. It was already tough for him to be a black guy, but for Raymond Tyler there was something else that was giving him a tough time. He was getting sexual feelings against some other girl and he knew that this isn’t right. He knew that Sela is a girl he is already committed to, but he has started getting feelings for Kelvin, whom Tyler met in his law school last year. It has become more than a friendship for him and even if he was trying really hard to suppress all the feelings he was getting, he was not able to and the sexual feelings have taken a deep root in him. In order to escape both Sela and Kelvin, he fled to New York, but in this new he found himself more confused. He found new relationships in New York, both from male as well as female and the pleasure he got from them were enormous. But there is no inner peace with him and he is always missing the lasting love he wants. Soon a close friend of him dies due to a horrible illness and that makes Raymond Tyler to accept the fact about who he is and he is now ready to face the truth about him. This book is perfect to read and shows the trouble one has to go through while his own reality.

The second novel published by the American author E. Lynn Harris is titled as ‘Just as I Am.’ This book was published by Doubleday Books on 1st February of the year 1994. Since the author E. Lynn Harris depicts perfectly the issues like bisexuality and race and many other related things, he has earned many audiences of diverse race across America. From the place ‘Invisible Life’ left off, ‘Just as I Am’ starts and introduces the appealing character of Harris, who narrates the after story of the first book. Raymond Tyler, a lawyer who came to New York from the South is struggling with his sexuality and with AIDS’ reality. Another character is Nicole, who is a good actress and a singer and she is now facing the problem of finding genuine love and is frustrated with her career. Both Raymond and Nicole become friends and the author is challenging the reader as well as the world to look them and try to see it through their eyes. Raymond and Nicole share their joys as well as pain, and through this Harris is trying to send the world a message that like love, life is all about self-acceptance. This book portrays the life of a black guy going through all the troubles of racism, bisexuality and AIDS and amidst this Harris is trying to provide the readers a heart-warming story.

One Response to “E. Lynn Harris”

1. Pam Chiles: 3 years ago

   I loved reading His books. I am looking for more of his books that I have not read. He was a great writer.

   Reply