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Gerald Lyn Early (born April 21, 1952) is an American and American culture critic. He is currently the Merle Kling Professor of Modern letters, of English language, African studies, African-American studies, American culture studies, and Director, Center for Joint Projects in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
He also served as a consultant on Ken Burns' Baseball, Jazz, , The War, and Muhammad Ali. He is a regular commentator on NPR's Fresh Air. His essays have appeared in numerous editions of The Best American Essays series. He writes on topics as diverse as American literature, the Korean War, African-American culture, Afro-American autobiography, non-fiction prose, baseball, jazz, prizefighting, Motown, Miles Davis, Muhammad Ali and Sammy Davis Jr.
In 2024, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
After earning his B.A. degree, Early remained in Philadelphia, where he became employed by the city government. He also spent six months monitoring gang activities through the Crisis Intervention Network, before resuming his course work at Cornell University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in English literature in 1982. Early landed his first teaching job as an assistant professor of black studies in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in 1982. He steadily rose to a full professorship in both the English and the renamed African and Afro-American studies departments by 1990.
For his essay collection The Culture of Bruising: Essays on Prizefighting, Literature, and Modern American Culture, he won the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award.
He has been nominated twice for the Grammy Awards for Best Album Notes. Once in 2001, for Yes I Can! The Sammy Davis Jr. Story, and again in 2002 for Rhapsodies in Black: Music and Words From The Harlem Renaissance.
On September 5, 2007, Early was honored by Washington University with the unveiling of a portrait painted by Jamie Adams that hangs in the Journals Reading Room of the university's Olin Library.
In 2013, Early was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
On February 19, 2022, the Chicago suburb of Park Forest rededicated Early Street, initially named for the Confederate general, in Gerald Early's honor in an effort to celebrate the historic diversity of the village.
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