{{short description|American author}} {{Infobox writer | name = Cyrus Colter | image = File:Cyrus colter.jpg | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Cyrus James Colter | birth_date = {{birth date|1910|1|8}} | birth_place = Noblesville, Indiana, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2002|4|15|1910|1|8}} | death_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | occupation = Writer; academic; lawyer | nationality = American | period = 1960–2002 | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''The Beach Umbrella'' (1970)<br>''Night Studies'' (1979)<br>''The Amoralists and Other Tales'' (1988)<br>''A Chocolate Soldier'' (1988) | spouse = {{marriage|Imogene Mackay|1943|1984|end=d.}} | children = | awards = | signature = | website = | imagesize = }} '''Cyrus Colter''' (January 8, 1910 – April 15, 2002) was an American author. Trained as a lawyer and during an extended career in public service, he began writing short stories at aged 50. He joined the faculty at Northwestern University in the 1970s and became the first African American to occupy an endowed chair at the university. His short stories and novels often dealt with the lives of working and middle-class African Americans.<ref name=HOF>{{Cite web |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/cyrus-colter |title=Cyrus Colter |date=2011 |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame |access-date=2020-02-04}}</ref><ref name=NYT>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/books/cyrus-colter-92-a-writer-on-black-lives.html |title=Cyrus Colter, 92, a Writer on Black Lives |date=2002-04-19 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2020-02-04 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Cyrus Colter |via=Oxford Reference |encyclopedia=The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095625760 |language=en |access-date=2020-02-05}}</ref>
== Biography == Cyrus Colter was born in Noblesville, Indiana, on January 8, 1910, to James Alexander Colter and Ethel Marietta Basset Colter.<ref name=chi>{{Cite web |url=https://www.chipublib.org/fa-cyrus-colter-papers/ |title=Cyrus Colter Papers |website=Chicago Public Library |language=en-US |access-date=2020-02-04}}</ref> His parents' families had come to Indiana in the 1830s from North Carolina in search of a "safe home for free blacks."<ref name=Stamatel>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Colter, Cyrus J. 1910–2002 | via=Encyclopedia.com |encyclopedia=Contemporary Black Biography |publisher=Gale |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/colter-cyrus-j-1910-2002 |last=Stamatel |first=Janet P.|access-date=2020-02-05}}</ref> James Alexander worked in insurance, as an actor, and for the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Ethel Marietta died when Cyrus Colter was six years old.<ref name=chi/>
Colter was educated at the Rayan school when the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio. At Youngstown College and Ohio State University, he pursued an undergraduate degree during the Great Depression. In 1936, Colter moved to Chicago to study law at Chicago-Kent College of Law where he graduated in 1940.<ref name=Kapai>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1999 |title=Cyrus Colter |encyclopedia=Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rprS-mm9uywC&q=cyrus%2520colter&pg=PA102 |last=Kapai |first=Leela |editor-last=Nelson |editor-first=Emmanuel S. |language=en |isbn=978-0-313-30501-6}}</ref> He served in Italy in the Army during World War II, and was promoted to captain. While practicing law in Chicago, Colter was appointed by Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson to the Illinois Commerce Commission, where he remained until 1973 when he begin his career at Northwestern University.
==External links== * [https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/2/resources/800 Cyrus Colter Papers] are housed university of Iowa special collections
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colter, Cyrus}} Category:1910 births Category:2002 deaths Category:African-American novelists Category:African-American short story writers Category:Chicago-Kent College of Law alumni Category:Military personnel from Indiana Category:Northwestern University faculty Category:Ohio State University alumni Category:People from Noblesville, Indiana Category:Writers from Chicago Category:Youngstown State University alumni Category:Writers from Indiana Category:20th-century African-American people Category:21st-century African-American people