Table Of ContentBLACK AMERICAN WRITERS
Bibliographical Essays
Volume 1 THE BEGINNINGS THROUGH
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
AND LANGSTON HUGHES
Black An1erican Writers
Bibliographical Essays
Volume 1 THE BEGINNINGS
THROUGH THE HARLEM
RENAISSANCE AND
LANGSTON HUGHES
Edited by
M. THOMAS INGE
MAURICE DUKE
JACKSON R. BRYER
M
© St. Martin's Press
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1978978-0-333-25892-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission.
First published 1978 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London
and Basingstoke
Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg
Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo
British Library CataIoguing in Publication Data
Black American writers.
1.
1. American literature-Afro-American authors
History and criticism
I. Inge, T 11. Duke, M 111. Bryer, Jackson R
810'.9'896 PS153.N5
ISBN 978-1-349-81438-1 ISBN 978-1-349-81436-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-81436-7
This book is sold subject to the standard conditions of the Net Book
Agreement
PREFACE
The last two decades have witnessed a great proliferation of scholar-
ship devoted to the history and culture of Afro-Americans. And out of
this increasing recognition of the contribution of blacks to the develop-
ment of this nation has come a significant reassessment of the aesthetic
and humanistic achievements of black writers.
Black American Writers: Bibliographical Essays is intended as an apprais-
al of the best biographical and critical writings about America's seminal
black writers, as well as an identification of manuscript and special
resources for continued study. It is also intended to give an overview of
the current state of scholarly recognition of the lives and careers of
these authors and an appreciation of their works.
The coverage is intentionally selective, both in the figures involved
and the material examined in each chapter. Yet we feel that, within our
self-imposed chronological limit, no major Afro-American literary fig-
ure has been overlooked. Volume 1 covers the early black writers of the
eighteenth century, the slave narratives, the early modern writers, the
Harlem Renaissance, and Langston Hughes. Volume 2 focuses on four
major twentieth-century black writers: Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison,
James Baldwin, and Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). A bibliographical
survey of the great number of black American writers who have come
to prominence since Wright, Ellison, Baldwin, and Baraka would re-
quire another volume or volumes and, given the rich and vigorous
production of black writers today and the continual emergence of new
figures, would perhaps be premature.
Our hope is that the bibliographical essays in these volumes, all by
specialists on their topics, will aid and encourage further study of black
American writers and literature.
M. Thomas Inge
Maurice Duke
Jackson R. Bryer
KEY TO JOURNAL
ABBREVIATIONS
ABC American Book EH Eastern Horizon (Hong
Collector Kong)
AH American Heritage Ej English Journal
AHR American Historical EngR English Record
Review ETJ Educational Theatre
AI American Imago Journal
AJS American Journal of EvR Evergreen Review
Sociology Expl Explicator
AL American Literature FourQ Four Quarters
ALR American Literary GaR Georgia Review
Realism, 1870-1910 GC Graduate Comment
AmerS American Studies HC Hollins Critic
AQ American Quarterly IJAS Indian Journal of
AR Antioch Review American Studies
ArQ Arkansas Quarterly JAF Journal of American
ASch American Scholar Folklore
A Soc Arts in Society JAH Journal of American
AtM Atlantic Monthly History
BALF Black American JAmS Journal of American
Literature Forum Studies
BARev Black Academy Review ]BlS Journal of Black Studies
BB Bulletin of Bibliography JBP Journal of Black Poetry
BlackER Black Books Bulletin JEGP Journal of English and
BlackD Black Dialogue Germanic Philology
BlackR Black Review JHR Journal of Human
BlackSch Black Scholar Relations
BlackW Black World JML Journal of Modern
CathW Catholic World Literature
CE College English ]NE Journal of Negro
ChiR Chicago Review Education
CLAJ College Language JNH Journal of Negro
Association Journal History
ColQ Colorado Quarterly ]NT Journal of Narrative
ConL Contemporary Technique
Literature ]PC Journal of Popular
CP Concerning Poetry Culture
Crit Critique JSH Journal of Southern
DAI Dissertation Abstracts History
International KanQ Kansas Quarterly
DB Down Beat KR Kenyon Review
EA Etudes Anglaises L&I Literature and Ideology
EAL Early American LanM Langues Modernes
Literature LJ Library Journal
vii
viii Key to journal Abbreviations
MarkhamR Markham Review S&S Science and Society
MAS] Midcontinent American SAQ South Atlantic Quarterly
Studies Journal SatR Saturday Review
MD Modern Drama SBL Studies in Black
MFS Modern Fiction Studies Literature
Midwest] Midwest Journal SCR South Carolina Review
MinnR Minnesota Review SEP Saturday Evening Post
MissQ Mississippi Quarterly SF Social Forces
ModQ Modern Quarterly SFQ Southern Folklore
MQ Midwest Quarterly Quarterly
MQR Michigan Quarterly SHR Southern Humanities
Review Review
MR Massachusetts Review SLJ Southern Literary
N&Q Notes and Queries Journal
NALF Negro American SNL Satire Newsletter
Literature Forum SNNTS Studies in the Novel
NAR North American Review (North Texas State
NConL Notes on Contemporary University)
Literature SR Sewanee Review
ND Negro Digest SSF Studies in Short Fiction
NEQ New England Quarterly SWR Southwest Review
NewL New Letters TAY Twice-A-Year
NHB Negro History Bulletin TDR The Drama Review
NL New Leader (Formerly Tulane
NR New Republic Drama Review)
NY New Yorker TQ Texas Quarterly
NYHTBW New York Herald TSLL Texas Studies in
Tribune Book Week Language and
NYRB New York Review of Literature
Books UKCR University of Kansas
NYTBR New York Times Book City Review
Review UR University Review
PBSA Papers of the VQR Virginia Quarterly
Bibliographical Society Review
of America WHR Western Humanities
PMLA Publications of the Review
Modern Language WLB Wilson Library Bulletin
Association of America WSCL Wisconsin Studies in
PoeS Poe Studies Contemporary
PR Partisan Review Literature
PubW Publishers Weekly WWR Walt Whitman Review
xus
QJS Quarterly Journal of Xavier University
Speech Studies
QQ Queen's Quarterly YR Yale Review
QRL Quarterly Review of YULG Yale University Library
Literature Gazette
RAL Research in African ZAA Zeitschrift fur Anglistik
Literature und Amerikanistik (East
RALS Resources for American Berlin)
Literary Study
CONTENTS
Preface v
Key to Journal Abbreviations Vll
EARLY WRITERS: JUPITER HAMMON, PHILLIS
WHEATLEY, AND BENJAMIN BANNEKER
Jerome Klinkowitz 1
SLAVE NARRATIVES
Ruth Miller and Peter]. Katopes 21
THE POLEMICISTS: DAVID WALKER, FREDERICK
DOUGLASS, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, AND
W. E. B. DU BOIS
W. Burghardt Turner 4 7
MODERN BEGINNINGS: WILLIAM WELLS BROWN,
CHARLES WADDELL CHESNUTT, MARTIN R.
DELANY, PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, SUTTON E.
GRIGGS, FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER, AND
FRANK J. WEBB
Ruth Miller and Peter]. Katopes 133
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: ARNA W. BONTEMPS,
COUNTEE CULLEN, JAMES WELDON JOHNSON,
CLAUDE McKAY, AND JEAN TOOMER
Ruth Miller and Peter]. Katopes 161
LANGSTON HUGHES
Blyden Jackson 187
N arne Index 207
BLACK AMERICAN WRITERS
Bibliographical Essays
Volume 1 THE BEGINNINGS THROUGH
THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE
AND LANGSTON HUGHES
EARLY WRITERS:
Jupiter Hammon,
Phillis Wheatley, and
Benjamin Banneker
jEROME KLINKOWITZ
Jupiter Hammon
Jupiter Hammon (1711-c. 1786) lived most of his life as a slave of the
Lloyd family on their Long Island, New York, estate. Hammon's liter-
ary talents, which found expression in poems of religious exhortation,
were encouraged by the Lloyds, and earned him the stature of a
preacher and leader among his fellow slaves. Because Hammon's poem
"An Evening Thought" was published in 1761, he is generally regarded
as America's first black poet, though this rank is determined by formal
publication within the structures of genteel white society. Hammon
remains noteworthy as a figure whose writing technique served the
demands of poetic art as well as those of his religious faith. What
earlier critics saw as crudeness, contemporary scholars have come to
regard as evidence of folk poetry struggling against the stricter forms
of religious verse.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A complete descriptive bibliography of the works of Jupiter Hammon
is provided by Oscar Wegelin in Jupiter Hammon: American Negro Poet
(New York: Charles F. Heartman, 1915). Wegelin's compilation is also
the most accessible, as it is available in reprint editions (Plainview,
N.Y.: Books for Libraries, 1969 and 1970), and, in addition, is incor-
porated in an anthology by Stanley Austin Ransom, Jr., America's First
Negro Poet: The Complete Works if Jupiter Hammon of Long Island (Port
Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970).
EDITIONS
Ransom's anthology reprints nearly all of Hammon's poetry and prose,
except for "An Essay on the Ten Virgins." Wegelin's volume includes
1
