Anthologies of African American Writing

Afro-American Literature: An Introduction

"Afro-American Literature: An Introduction" . Comp. Robert Hayden, David J. Burrows, and Frederick R. Lapides. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971. viii+309 pp.

Blood-burning moon / Jean Toomer -- Soul food / Langston Hughes -- The man who lived underground / Richard Wright -- King of the bingo game / Ralph Ellison -- Sonny's blues / James Baldwin -- On trains / James Alan McPherson -- The creation / James Weldon Johnson -- If we must die / Claude McKay -- Outcast / Claude McKay -- Song of the son / Jean Toomer -- The sea-turtle and the shark / Melvin B. Tolson -- Strong men / Sterling A. Brown -- Theme for English B / Langston Hughes -- The Negro speaks of rivers / Langston Hughes -- I, too, sing America / Langston Hughes -- Close your eyes / Arna Bontemps -- Southern mansion / Arna Bontemps -- From the dark tower / Countee Cullen -- Heritage / Countee Cullen -- Incident / Countee Cullen -- Middle passage / Robert Hayden -- Runagate runagate / Robert Hayden -- A ballad of remembrance / Robert Hayden -- Sorrow is the only faithful one / Owen Dodson -- George / Dudley Randall -- The profile on the pillow / Dudley Randall -- For my people / Margaret Walker -- We have been believers / Margaret Walker -- Through the varied patterned lace / Margaret Danner -- The Chicago Defender sends a man to Little Rock, fall, 1957 / Gwendolyn Brooks -- Bronzeville man with a belt in the back / Gwendolyn Brooks -- Sadie and Maud / Gwendolyn Brooks -- The sacrifice / Gerald William Barrax -- Black Narcissus / Gerald William Barrax -- A Negro soldier's Viet Nam diary / Herbert Woodward Martin -- A poem for black hearts / LeRoi Jones -- The dance / LeRoi Jones -- Good times / Lucille Clifton -- I am a cowboy in the boat of Ra / Ishmael Reed -- Hymn / Alice Walker -- Ibe / Lynn Shorter -- Domo's mirror / Lynn Shorter -- Day of absence : a satyrical fantasy / Douglas Turner Ward -- Black boy / Richard Wright -- Notes of a native son / James Baldwin -- 1965 / Malcolm X -- On becoming / Elridge Cleaver -- Negro youth speaks / Alain Locke -- A century of Negro portraiture in American literature / Sterling A. Brown -- American Negro literature / J. Saunders Redding -- The origin and growth of Afro-American literature / John Hendrik Clark -- The revolutionary theater / LeRoi Jones.

• n/a

• "This anthology contains bio-bibliographical notes (pp. 299-304) on thirty black American writers—from James Weldon Johnson to Ishmael Reed and Lynn Shorter. Included also is a very selective bibliography (pp. 308-309) of secondary sources: journals, bibliographical sources, literary history and criticism, and studies of folklore" (Rowell 1972: 36-37).

Kinnamon 1997: 467]

A0141