The Fan Who Knew Too Much The Secret Closets of American Culture

Anthony Heilbut is a Grammy-winning record producer famous for his work with gospel music; he is also the author of The Gospel Sound, which celebrates the sound and contributors of the gospel scene. He is an agnostic with Jewish roots who adores gospel music. The Fan Who Knew Too Much, extends “…Heilbut’s fascination with outsiders, loners, and exiles in 20th-century American Culture (Ian Crouch).”

The book is comprised of eight essays that range from art to obsession. Heilbut explores the roles of gays in the gospel church, profiles the life and work of Aretha Franklin, discusses the rise of the soap opera and Irna Phillips, its most influential figure, detours to an expose on male sopranos, and explores the roles of émigrés from Hitler’s Germany to America. On this broad journey through American culture, “Anthony Heilbut has been a guide and a mentor...I know of no one who has the love and depth of knowledge of this extraordinary author (Paul Simon).”

Anthony Heilbut is the author of Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature, Exiled in Paradise: German Refugee Artists and Intellectuals in America from the 1930s to the Present, and, The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times. He is a record producer specializing in gospel music and has won a Grammy Award and a Grand Prix du Disque. He received his Ph.D in English from Harvard University, and has taught at New York University and Hunter College.