{{Short description|American writer (1942–2022)}} {{Refimprove|date=July 2022}} {{Use American English|date=July 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Paul Garon | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1942|7|6}} | birth_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|7|26|1942|7|6}} | death_place = | resting_place = | citizenship = | occupation = Writer | spouse = | children = | father = }}
'''Paul Arthur Garon''' (July 6, 1942 – July 26, 2022) was an American author, writer, and editor, noted for his meditations on surrealist works, and also a noted scholar on blues as a musical and cultural movement.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LqrWAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Paul+Garon%22 |title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore: G-P |first=Anand |last=Prahlad |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=9780313330377 |page=498 |date=January 1, 2006 |access-date=July 22, 2019 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
Born in Louisville, Kentucky, the son of a doctor and a sociology graduate,<ref name=lestemps>[https://lestempsdublues.com/2022/07/27/paul-garon-1942-2022/ Daniel Leon, "Paul Garon, 1942–2022", ''Les temps du blues'', July 27, 2022]. Retrieved July 28, 2022</ref> Garon settled in Chicago and was one of the founders of the Chicago Surrealist Group in the mid-1960s.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QTfWDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Paul+garon%22+1942&pg=RA1-PA315 "Garon, Paul", ''The International Encyclopedia of Surrealism'', Michael Richardson et al. (eds.), Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019]</ref>
Garon was one of the founding editors of ''Living Blues'' magazine in 1970. He once wrote that "blues represents a fusion of music and poetry accomplished at a very high emotional temperature".<ref>{{cite book|title=Deep Blues|author=Robert Palmer|year=1981 |authorlink=Robert Palmer (American writer)|publisher=Penguin Books|page=[https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/19 19]|isbn=978-0-14-006223-6|url=https://archive.org/details/deepblues00palm/page/19}}</ref> Amongst his other publications, Garon was the biographer of Peetie Wheatstraw.<ref name="Devil">{{cite book|title=The Devil's Music|author=Giles Oakley|publisher=Da Capo Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/171 171/3]|isbn=978-0-306-80743-5|date=1997|url=https://archive.org/details/devilsmusichisto00oakl_0/page/171}}</ref> Later, Garon and his wife Beth operated Beasley Books together, a rare book business in Chicago. He was also a founding partner of the Chicago Rare Book Center, in Evanston, Illinois.
Garon died on July 26, 2022, at the age of 80.<ref name=lestemps/>
==Works== * ''What's the Use of Walking if There's A Freight Train Going Your Way? Black Hoboes and Their Songs.'' with Gene Tomko, 2015. {{ISBN| 978-0882863719}} * ''Woman With Guitar: Memphis Minnie's Blues'', with Beth Garon, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0306804601}} * ''Blues and the Poetic Spirit'', 2001. {{ISBN|978-0872863156}} * ''The Forecast Is Hot: Tracts & Other Collective Declarations of the Surrealist Movement in the United States 1966–1976'', with Franklin Rosemont and Penelope Rosemont, 1997. {{ISBN|978-0941194297}} * ''The Devil's Son-In-Law: The Story of Peetie Wheatstraw and His Songs'', 2003. {{ISBN|978-0882862668}} * ''Rana Mozelle: Surrealist Texts'', 1978. {{ISBN| 978-0941194051}} * ''The Charles H. Kerr Company Archives 1885–1985: A Century of Socialist and Labor Publishing'', 1985. {{ISBN|978-0882861449}} * "White Blues," ''Race Traitor'' 4 (1995)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://racetraitor.org/blues.html|title=RACE TRAITOR – White Blues|website=Racetraitor.org|accessdate=February 3, 2019}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{DNB portal|131203509|TYP=}} * [http://www.beasleybooks.com/?page=shop/index&CLSN_2090=128197545420903a90167f95e151aadf Beasley Books] * {{discogs artist|Paul Garon}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Garon, Paul}} Category:1942 births Category:2022 deaths Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky Category:American writers about music Category:American art critics Category:American book editors
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