African-American Poetry

The New Red Negro: The Literary Left and African American Poetry, 1930-1946 surveys African American poetry between the onset of the Depression and the early days of the Cold War. The New Red Negro considers the relationship between the thematic and formal choices of African American poets and organized ideology from the "proletarian" early 1930s to the "neo-modernist" late 1940s. This study examines poetry by writers who are canonical, less well-known, and virtually unknown.

Series Foreword Introduction Running Before the Wind (1972) Out Beyond the Bay (1975) Moons and Low Times (1978) To Hear the River (1981) At Winter's End (1982) These Halves Are Whole (1983) New Poems, 1983-

For his humanistic religious verse, his poignant and deeply personal antislavery poems, his folk verse, and, above all, his lifelong enthusiasm for liberty, nature, and the art of poetry, George Moses Horton merits a place of distinction among nineteenth-century African American poets. Enslaved for sixty-eight years - from his birth until the close of the Civil War - he was the first American slave to protest his bondage in published verse, the first black man to publish a book in the South, and the only slave to earn a significant income through the sale of his poems. As a man and as a poet, Horton's achievements were extraordinary. In this volume, Joan Sherman collects sixty-two of Horton's poems. Her comprehensive introduction - which combines biography, history, cultural commentary, and critical insight - presents a compelling and detailed picture of this remarkable man's life and art. Covering a wide range of poetical subjects in varied verse forms, this collection is an eloquent testament to Horton's unique voice.

Drawing together scholars from communication, literature, philosophy, linguistics, and other fields, this edited collection examines the current thinking on African American literature and language. Some of the most significant writers and thinkers in the field have contributed their views on all major aspects of the topic. The widespread debate over the canon in American literature, the issue of cultural diversity, and the need to have books with critical inquiry into African American culture make this collection suitable for scholars and students in diverse fields.