Image

Steven C. Tracy, distinguished professor emeritus of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, recently provided annotations on jazz for a massive new edition of “The Great Gatsby,” published in November by Bond and Grace.

Tracy’s work in the new edition of “The Great Gatsby” is the latest of a number of academic works he has completed or contributed do during his retirement. His first two books, “Langston Hughes and the Blues” and “Going to Cincinnati: A History of the Blues in the Queen City,” were recently re-released by University of Illinois Press nearly 40 years after their first issue, in 2024 and December 2025. Both books have been dubbed classics since their initial publication, the former of criticism and the latter of blues music.

He has also published chapters in The Langston Hughes Review, as well as in Foreign Language Review in China.

Tracy, who has recently been diagnosed with early-stage Lewy Body Dementia, is currently working on a sequel to his latest book, 2016’s “Hot Music, Ragmentation, and the Bluing of American Literature.”