| Summary: | Novelist Sam Greenlee was born on July 13, 1930 in Chicago, Illinois. He participated in his first sit-in and walked his first picket line at age fifteen. In 1957, he began a seven-year career with the U.S. Information Agency as a foreign services officer, serving in Iraq, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Greece. In 1958, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Award for bravery during the Baghdad revolution. Greenlee's first and most well-known novel, The Spook Who Sat by the Door, was published in 1968. The prize-winning novel became a favorite for its fictionalization of an urban-based war for African American liberation. Greenlee also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation of the novel. The film The Spook Who Sat by the Door was released in 1974. He wrote numerous novels, stage plays, screenplays and poems throughout his life. Greenlee passed away on May 19, 2014 at age 83.
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