Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Supplement to the Study of American Literature; repr. as Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Anthology of Negro Poetry
Item
Title
Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Supplement to the Study of American Literature; repr. as Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Anthology of Negro Poetry
This edition
"Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Supplement to the Study of American Literature" . Ed. Robert B. Eleazor. Atlanta: Conference on Education and Race Relations, 1934. 23 pp. ["First edition, 5000, June, 1934."]
Other editions, reprints, and translations
Repr. as "Singers in the Dawn: A Brief Anthology of Negro Poetry" ("2nd ed." 10,000, January, 1935; "3rd ed." 10,000, July, 1936; "4th ed." 10,000, November, 1937; "5th ed." 10,000 copies, Feb. 1939, 10 cents per copy, $1.00 per dozen; "6th ed." 1942; "7th ed." Atlanta: Commission on Interracial Cooperation, 1943).
Online access
5th ed. (1939) available via Internet Archive:
2nd ed. (1935) available via African American Biographical Database (Chadwyck-Healey) (subscription required)
Table of contents
• Although the second and subsequent printings call the work a "brief anthology" of Negro poetry, this work is better characterized as an introductory survey of poetry by African American authors, with sample excerpts from many of the poets mentioned, but few whole poems. The survey (pp. 3-22) is followed by a one-page account of "The Negro Spiritual" by Prof. Frederick Hall (Dillard U, New Orleans).
Anthology editor(s)' discourse
• Foreword: "A few decades ago the map of the world which we studied in school still showed great uncharted areas marked 'unknown.' A recent examination of thirty-eight volumes on American literature—textbooks and anthologies—revealed a similar unexplored area of literary attainment [i.e. African American literature]. In most of these books this region was not even marked unknown—it was simply ignored, as if it were not there at all.
"Yet, even a hurried adventure into that area reveals a unique and interesting realm of literary art, and suggests rich possibilities as yet unrealized. To introduce the inquiring student to this new land, which is the purpose of this little volume, is a service he will appreciate increasingly as he explores further.
"The compiler makes no pretense of original research or critical authority. He cheerfully confesses his debt to the three or four anthologies covering this field, notably 'Negro Poets and Their Poems' by Thomas [sic, Robert] A. Kerlin [1923], 'An Anthology of Verse by American Negroes' by White and Jackson [1924], 'The Book of American Negro Poetry' by James Weldon Johnson [1922], and 'Caroling Dusk' by Countee Cullen [1927]. Each of these collections is an excellent piece of work; any one or all of them are recommended to those wishing to go further into the subject. For authority to quote, we are indebted to Dodd, Mead and Company, Harper and Brothers, and Harcourt, Brace and Company" (2).
"Yet, even a hurried adventure into that area reveals a unique and interesting realm of literary art, and suggests rich possibilities as yet unrealized. To introduce the inquiring student to this new land, which is the purpose of this little volume, is a service he will appreciate increasingly as he explores further.
"The compiler makes no pretense of original research or critical authority. He cheerfully confesses his debt to the three or four anthologies covering this field, notably 'Negro Poets and Their Poems' by Thomas [sic, Robert] A. Kerlin [1923], 'An Anthology of Verse by American Negroes' by White and Jackson [1924], 'The Book of American Negro Poetry' by James Weldon Johnson [1922], and 'Caroling Dusk' by Countee Cullen [1927]. Each of these collections is an excellent piece of work; any one or all of them are recommended to those wishing to go further into the subject. For authority to quote, we are indebted to Dodd, Mead and Company, Harper and Brothers, and Harcourt, Brace and Company" (2).
Cited in
• Lash 1946: 724.
• [not in Kinnamon 1997]
• [not in Kinnamon 1997]
Item Number
A0034