Walter Mosley (born January 12, 1952) is a prominent African-American novelist, most widely recognized for his crime fiction. His series of best-selling historical mysteries featuring the hard-boiled detective Easy Rawlins, a black private investigator and World War II veteran living in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, is perhaps his most popular work.
Mosley has written over twenty books in a variety of genres, including non-mystery fiction, science fiction and non-fiction politics, and has been translated into 21 languages. Two of his books have been made into films or television specials; his first published book, Devil in a Blue Dress, became a 1995 movie starring Denzel Washington. Mosley's fame increased in 1992 when then-President Bill Clinton, a fan of murder mysteries, named Mosley as one of his favorite authors.
Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including the Anisfield Wolf Award, an honor given to works that increase the appreciation and understanding of race in America. He was a finalist for the NAACP Award in Fiction and won the 1996 Black Caucus of the American Library Association's Literary Award for RL's Dream. He was an O. Henry Award winner in 1996 (for a Socrates Fortlow story). In 2005 the Sundance Institute gave him a "Risktaker Award" for both his creative and activist efforts.
Mosley holds an honorary doctorate from The City College and has served on the board of directors of the National Book Awards. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he now lives in New York City.
Easy Rawlins mysteries
Devil in a Blue Dress (1990)
A Red Death (1991)
White Butterfly (1992)
Black Betty (1994)
A Little Yellow Dog (1996)
Gone Fishin' (1997)
Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2002)
Six Easy Pieces (2003)
Little Scarlet (2004)
Cinnamon Kiss (2005)
Other fiction
RL's Dream (1995)
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (1997)
Blue Light (1998)
Walkin' the Dog (1999)
Futureland: Nine Stories of an Imminent World (2001)
Fearless Jones (2001)
Fear Itself (2003)
The Man in My Basement (2004)
47 (2005)
The Wave (2005)
Fortunate Son (2006)
Nonfiction
Workin' on the Chain Gang: Shaking off the Dead Hand of History (2000)
What Next: An African American Initiative Toward World Peace (2003)
Art book
Maximum Fantastic Four (2005)
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)
Always Outnumbered (1998) (TV)
