1. Seer and the seen: Same pain, the same pleasure: an interview -- Twentieth-century fiction and the black mask of humanity -- Change the joke and slip the yoke -- Stephen Crane and the mainstream of American fiction -- Richard Wright's blues -- Beating that boy -- Brave words for a startling occasion -- World and the jug -- Hidden name and complex fate -- Art of fiction: an interview -- 2. Sound and the mainstream: Living with music -- Golden age, time past -- As the spirit moves Mahalia -- On bird, bird-watching, and jazz -- Charlie Christian story -- Remembering Jimmy -- Blues people -- 3. Shadow and the act: Some questions and some answers -- Shadow and the act -- Way it is -- Harlem is nowhere -- An American dilemma: a review.