Anthologies of African American Writing

Sixes and Sevens: An Anthology of New Poetry

"Sixes and Sevens: An Anthology of New Poetry" . Ed. Paul Breman. London: P. Breman, 1962. 96 pp. (Heritage: Poetry of the North American Negro, no. 2)

Ray Durem -- Calvin C. Hernton -- Conrad Kent Rivers -- Audre G. Lorde -- George R. Bell -- James W. Thompson -- Willard Moore -- James A. Emanuel -- Russell Atkins -- Raymond Patterson -- Percy Johnston -- Allen Polite -- Charles Anderson.

• Limited edition: 300 numbered copies only (WorldCat).
• "There were thirteen contributors to this anthology, six of them with substantial selections, seven with shorter ones—hence the title" ("The Heritage Series of Black Poetry, 1962-1975: A Research Compendium". Ed. Lauri Ramey, in consultation with Paul Breman. Abingdon, UK: Ashgate, 2008. 132).
• In his introduction to the volume, Breman notes that "the present cross-section . . . includes, I believe, all the prevalent preoccupations both of poetry in general and of the American Negro in particular" (quoted in Chaplin 1967: 53).
• Other volumes in the "Heritage" series include selections of poetry by Robert Hayden ("A Ballad of Remembrance"), Frank Horne ("Haverstraw"), and Arna Bontemps ("Personals").
• Hoyt Fuller, "A Familiar Stranger" ("Negro Digest" [Jan. 1967]: 49 [Google Books preview https://books.google.com/books?id=FDoDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA50&dq=%22for%20malcolm%3A%20poems%20on%20the%20life%20and%20death%20of%20malcolm%20x%22&pg=PA49#v=onepage&q&f=false ]), is a profile of Breman, a young antiquarian bookseller in the UK (though of Dutch birth and ancestry) who published these volumes "at his own expense" in London as "a labor of love."

• Chaplin, Jim. "American Negro Poetry." "Transition" 30 (1967): 53. "JSTOR".
Chaplin notes that the six authors in the volume who are allotted the most space "have been allowed to state their aims" as poets: "There is no doubt that this opportunity to know what makes the poet 'tick' is of value when coming to grips with their verse" (53).

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• "The Heritage Series of Black Poetry, 1962-1975: A Research Compendium". Ed. Lauri Ramey, in consultation with Paul Breman. Abingdon, UK: Ashgate, 2008.
• "You Better Believe It: Black Verse in English from Africa, the West Indies and the United States". Ed. Paul Breman. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973. [see in Part 3]

• Kallenbach 1979.
• Kinnamon 1997: 471. (gives subtitle as "An Anthology of New Negro Poetry")

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