Anthologies of African American Writing

Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology

"Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology" . Ed. Michael Taft. New York: Garland, 1983. xxvii+379 pp.

"Talkin' to Myself: Blues Lyrics, 1920-1942." Ed. Michael Taft. Rev. ed. New York: Routledge, 2005. xxiii+719 pp.

"Taft has transcribed over 2,000 blues lyrics from recordings made between 1920 and 1942 and includes over 350 singers such as Josh White, Sonny Boy Williamson, Robert Johnson and Ma Rainey. The anthology includes both country and urban, male and female, "downhome" and vaudeville singers."

• McNeil, W. K. Review of "Blues Lyric Poetry: An Anthology" and of "Blues Lyric Poetry: A Concordance" "American Music" 4.4 (1986): 476-79.

• "Blues Lyric Poetry: A Concordance". Ed. Michael Taft. 3 vols. New York: Garland, 1984. xxxi+3,150 pp. [Available as web concordance http://www.dylan61.se/taft.htm , by T. G. Lindh. 2004.]
• Taft, Michael. "The Lyrics of Race Record Blues, 1920-1942: A Semantic Approach to the Structural Analysis of a Formulaic System." Thesis. Memorial U of Newfoundland, 1977.

not in Kinnamon 1997]

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