Charles Richard Johnson (b. 1948) was born in 1948 in Evanston, Illinois. He first came to prominence in the 1960s as a political cartoonist and illustrator. Johnson received a B.S. in journalism in 1971, an M.A. in philosophy in 1973, and a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1988. As a novelist, Johnson stated that his goal was to contribute to and enrich the tradition of "African-American philosophical fiction." His first philosophical novel, "Faith and the Good Thing," was published in 1974. In 1976 Johnson moved to Seattle to teach at the University of Washington, where as of 2019, he is Professor Emeritus and the Pollock Professor of English.

This image of Charles Johnson was taken during an interview regarding the publication of his second novel, "Oxherding Tale," a slave narrative told in the style of the 12th-century "Ten Ox Herding Pictures," which uses a series of short poems and accompanying drawings in the Zen tradition to describe the stages of progress toward enlightenment. To date, Dr. Johnson has published 16 books, including the 1990 National Book Award (for fiction) for "Middle Passage."

Caption information source: https://english.washington.edu/people/charles-johnson
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.