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John Christgau

American writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ6226004 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Frederick Christgau (February 11, 1934 – August 21, 2018) was an American author of fiction and non-fiction.

Christgau was born in Crookston, Minnesota. He later moved to California, where he attended San Francisco State University. He taught at several high schools and coached Crestmoor High School's first varsity basketball team, in San Bruno, California. He lived in Belmont, California.

His books have dealt primarily with sports and American history. His book, Michael and the Whiz Kids (2013), is the story of Christgau's experiences as coach of a championship, lightweight basketball team that featured the first African American athlete in Crestmoor High School's history. This book was followed by Incident at the Otterville Station: A Civil War Story of Slavery and Rescue, the true story of the rescue of slaves that were to be shipped from Missouri to Kentucky, in defiance of federal laws.

Christgau died following a heart attack on August 21, 2018.

List of works

Christgau, John (1978).

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “John Christgau” as american writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around John, Christgau and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1934, 2018, 2013, 1978—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1934-02-11. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with John, Christgau and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “John Christgau”, the useful work is to connect “american writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6226004. VIAF identifies the subject as 13731994. The Library of Congress control number is n85026883. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934, 2018, 2013 and 1978.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “John Christgau”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow John Christgau primary sources, John Christgau archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Christgau” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.