Anthologies of African American Writing

Collected Black Women's Poetry

"Collected Black Women's Poetry" . Ed. Joan R. Sherman. 4 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. (Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers.)

v. 1. Loew's bridge ; A Broadway idyl ; Poems / Mary E. Tucker (Lambert). Infelicia / Adah Isaacs Menken.
v. 2. Magnolia leaves / Mary Weston Fordham. Ethiope lays / Priscilla Jane Thompson. Gleanings of quiet hours / Priscilla Jane Thompson. Songs from the wayside / Clara Ann Thompson.
v. 3. Poems / H. Cordelia Ray. Prejudice unveiled and other poems / Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer.
v. 4. Morning glories / Josephine D. (Henderson) Heard. Poems / Eloise Bibb. Virginia dreams : lyrics for the idle j\hbour ; Tales of the time told in rhyme / Maggie Pogue Johnson. Autobiography and poems / Mrs. Henry Linden.

n/a

• "This work in four volumes, from The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers, reprints some historically interesting writing, often in the format in which it first appeared, right down to the title-page. The collection begins in the nineteenth century, with particular focus on the years 1890 to 1910. Literary historians call this the 'Black Women's Era.' Only a handful of poets are represented in the four volumes, and nine of them were published in the last decade of the nineteenth and first decade of the twentieth century. Christian idealism and morality dominate many of the poems, although there is an occasional reference to contemporary racial problems. Most of the poets have obvious technical ability, but unfortunately, aside from the short introductions, there are few notes to help one interpret the obscure material covered by the majority of the writers. The result is an anthology of historical value, and of great interest to professionals, but of limited interest to most other readers" ("The Columbia Granger's Guide to Poetry Anthologies". Ed. William Katz, Linda Sternberg Katz, and Esther Crain. 2nd enlarged ed. New York: Columbia UP, 1994. 8).
• "reprinting of eleven complete volumes of poetry originally published from 1867 to 1916 . . . [by] Mary E. Tucker Lambert, Adah Isaacs Menken, Mary Weston Fordham, Priscilla Jane Thompson, Clara Ann Thompson, H. Cordelia Ray, Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer, Josephine D. Heard, Eloise Bibb, Maggie Pogue Johnson, and Mrs. Henry Linden" (Kinnamon 1997: 471).

Kinnamon 1997: 471
• Indexed in "The Columbia Granger's Index to African-American Poetry" (1999)

A0240