Eric Jerome Dickey was an American author whose novels depicted romance, erotica, and suspense from the Black perspective. He wrote 29 books and sold over 7 million copies worldwide.
Dickey was born in Memphis. He received a Bachelor of Science from Memphis State University in 1983. At Memphis State, he was a member of the African American fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
After graduating from the UofM with a degree in computer system technology, he left for Los Angeles to pursue a career in engineering. But in LA, Dickey attended a writing class and decided to pursue acting and stand-up comedy.
Dickey contributed to Essence magazine, USA Today, and the Los Angeles Times. He debuted in 1966 with the novel Sister, Sister, about the lives of two African American sisters, Celeste and Ronnie, who were separated as children and reunited as adults.
Sister, Sister was a commercial success and later reached #1 on the Blackboard Bestsellers List.
Eric Jerome Dickey continued his writing career and achieved significant success. His books have been published in French, Polish, and Japanese. He has toured England, Europe, and the Caribbean.
The novel Milk in My Coffee (1998) became a bestseller in France. It is a story about a young African American man who falls in love with a white woman and must confront racism and prejudice.
Among others, his most notable works include Friends and Lovers (1997), Cheaters (1999), Liar's Game (2000), Thieves' Paradise (2002), Genevieve (2011), A Wanted Woman (2014), and The Blackbirds (2016).
"I have a wide range of readers from as young as 15 years to 80 years old," Dickey told The Michigan Chronicle in 1999. "I remember meeting an elderly woman at a book signing, and she told me that my love scenes in one of my novels were so steamy that she had to put the book down."
The New York Times noted in its obituary, "his fiction often featured strong Black women, and Black women were among his most enthusiastic readers."
Eric Jerome Dickey, after a long illness, died at 59.
Photo credit: FB @Eric Jerome Dickey