Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and the World That Made Him

321 Pages·2013·1.11 MB·English

by  David Henry

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furious cool 4
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furious cool | richard pryor 4
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and the world that made him
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david henry and joe henry 10
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Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill 32
2013 33
Published by
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225
a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014
© 2013 by David Henry and Joe Henry. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.
Design by April Leidig.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Henry, David, [date]
Furious cool : Richard Pryor and the world that made him /
by David Henry and Joe Henry.—First edition
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-61620-078-7
1. Pryor, Richard, 1940–2005. 2. Comedians—United
States—Biography. 3. Motion picture actors and actresses—
United States—Biography. I. Henry, Joe. II. Title.
PN2287.P77H46 2013
792.702'8092—dc23
[B] 2013019665
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
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For Clare & Melanie 7
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authors’ note 4
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Intending no disrespect and feeling no need to feign journal- 7
istic objectivity, it simply feels false to refer to our subject by 8
anything other than his Christian name. For those of us who 9
first encountered him in the early seventies, he will always be 10
Richard. Even in the days of Nixon, Brautigan, Burton, and 11
Leakey, he was, as the Village Voice’s Greg Tate wrote in memo- 12
riam, “the only Richard you could possibly be talking about.” 13
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And if there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing 7
in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, 8
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instead of being like victims burnt at the
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stake, signaling through the flames.
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—Antonin Artaud 12
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