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Is Herman Calloway Bud's father?

Despite the fact that Bud believes him to be so for almost the entire duration of the book Bud, Not Buddy, Herman Calloway is not Bud's father. Rather, he is his grandfather. 


Bud is under the impression that Calloway is his father because his deceased mother, Angela, left behind several posters showing Calloway with his band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression. Bud embarks on a wild journey to seek out Calloway and to inform him of their biological connection. However, Calloway is extremely resistant to the idea that Bud is his son, and when Bud's mother's name is eventually revealed to Calloway, he has a major emotional breakdown. Bud learns that his mother was the daughter of Calloway and that she had run away from home because of Calloway's strict parenting style. Calloway believes that Angela ran off with one of the men who used to be in his band; he did not even know that his daughter had passed away.


Regardless, Calloway decides to give Bud a home and to offer him the kind of familial support that he has desperately been lacking.

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