Robert Deane Pharr
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Robert Deane Pharr (1916–1989[1] or 1992[2]) was an African-American novelist.[3][4]
Pharr attended Saint Paul's Normal and Industrial School, Lincoln University, Virginia Union University and Fisk University,[2] but spent most of his career working as a waiter.[1] He graduated from Virginia Union University in 1939, and did graduate work at Fisk, Columbia University, and New York University.[5] He described his goal when he started writing as to be a "black Sinclair Lewis".[2][3] He is best known for his debut novel The Book of Numbers (1969), about the numbers racket, which was adapted into a 1973 film of the same name.[1][6] A draft of his novel Giveadamn Brown and related correspondence were given to the Archives and Special Collections Department, L. Douglas Wilder Library, at Virginia Union University.[7]
