Author Sam Greenlee, whose seminal work, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, died on May 19, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois. He was 83 years old. Greenlee was born in Chicago on July 13, 1930. A product of a black two parent household during the era of segregation, he went on to attend the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin. Greenlee served as an officer in the military and was one of a small number of blacks who worked in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1957-1965.
In 1969 he wrote, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, the story of a black CIA agent turned black revolutionary, named Dan Freeman, who goes back to the ghettos of Chicago and starts a rebellion against the United States. The book was controversial and was considered a blueprint for black insurrection by many in the FBI. In fact, when the book was later adapted into a major film in 1973, the FBI reportedly went to several movie theaters and seized the print of the film. Greenlee was also named the 1990 Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois. His works include novels; The Spook Who Sat by the Door and Baghdad Blues, and works of poetry; Blues for an African Princess, Ammunition!: Poetry and Other Raps and Be-Bop Man/Be-Bop Woman.
