Anthony Heilbut (The Gospel Sound) is a Grammy-winning record producer famous for his work with gospel artists like Mahalia Jackson and Marion Williams. The eight essays collected in The Fan Who Knew Too Much reveal Heilbut's polymath talents, as he meditates in surprising ways on a wide range of topics.
The leadoff essay, "The Children and Their Secret Closet," is a fascinating, revelatory history of the significant role of gays in the gospel church. To Heilbut, they are the "unacknowledged arbiters of the culture," from early key figures such as Little Ax and Norsalus McKissick, Mahalia Jackson (who preferred the company of gay men because the other kind only brought her "grief"), James Cleveland, the "king of gospel music" who would ultimately die of AIDS, and James Baldwin, the "greatest writer to come out of the gospel church."
Heilbut follows with an insightful, penetrating profile of Aretha Franklin, successfully arguing that the history of black America "could be divided into pre- and post Aretha." Another essay updates the role of emigrés from Hitler's Germany in the U.S. (the subject of Heilbut's 1983 book, Exiles in Paradise) while "The Emperor of Ambivalence" praises the writings of Joseph Roth. From there, Heilbut moves on to the "fascinating phenomenon" of the soap opera, focusing on Irna Phillips, an unwed mother who "helped domesticate Freud for the masses" as the creator of As the World Turns and The Guiding Light.
With an essay on male sopranos, one on the blues and finally the essay that gives the collection its title, Heilbut completes his breathtaking trip through American culture. --Tom Lavoie, former publisher