A whopping 2,665 pages, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was 10 years in the making, and it proves to have been well worth the wait. Beginning with vernacular forms such as the spirituals and the blues, it encompasses the whole history of black writing from the poems of Phillis Wheatley to the work of contemporary writers such as Terri McMillan, Toni Morrison, and Charles Johnson. Each section includes an introductory essay, and there is a brief biographical essay for each writer. The anthology includes an audio CD containing recorded examples of many of the songs and speeches.


From Publishers Weekly
Collaborating on The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, editors Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay have compiled what may be the definitive collection of its kind. Organized chronologically, the massive work gathers writings from six periods of black history: slavery and freedom; Reconstruction; the Harlem Renaissance; Realism, Naturalism and Modernism; the Black Arts Movement and the period since the 1970s. The work begins with the vernacular tradition of spirituals, gospel and the blues; continues through work songs, jazz and rap; ranges through sermons and folktales; and embraces letters and journals, poetry, short fiction, novels, autobiography and drama. BOMC selection; companion audio CD.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In this anthology, blues, gospel, jazz, rap, and sermons take center stage. In close proximity are poetry, fiction, drama, and autobiography by major authors like Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Toni Morrison.Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Russ Castronovo, University of Miami
Brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from.


Russ Castronovo, University of Miami
Brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from.


Russ Castronovo, University of Miami
Brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from.


Cornel West
A classic of splendid proportions.


Book Description
Welcomed on publication as "brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from," (Russ Castronovo, University of Miami) The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was adopted at more than 1,275 colleges and universities worldwide. Now, the new Second Edition offers these highlights: Nine new writers The Second Edition includes nine new writers spanning three centuries: Jupiter Hammon, Venture Smith, Martin Delany, Elizabeth Keckley, Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, and Harryette Mullen. Strengthened Vernacular Tradition Building on the editors' view that vernacular expression lives in performance, the original Audio Companion CD has been expanded to a two-CD set; Disc 1, Music, includes vocal and instrumental pieces-from ragtime to Motown. Disc 2, Spoken Word, offers 24 speeches, readings, and performances, from Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois to Amiri Baraka and Rita Dove. 11 complete longer works Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (new); Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Nella Larsen, Quicksand (new); Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground; Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Amiri Baraka, Dutchman; Ed Bullins, Goin'a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy; Adrienne Kennedy, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White; August Wilson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (new). Strengthened Apparatus and a More Readable Format An extensive, new Selected General Bibliography Revised—some entirely rewritten—period introductions, headnotes, footnotes, and updated author bibliographies Updated timeline A new trim size and bolder typeface for easier reading Thoroughly Revised "Literature Since 1975" Succeeding the late Barbara Christian, new editor Cheryl A. Wall has included 5 new writers-poet Harryette Mullen and fiction writers Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, and Colson Whitehead. In addition, Wall has rewritten the period introduction and many headnotes in their entirety and updated all apparatus. Course Guide by Joycelyn A. Moody, University of Washington Thoroughly revised, the Course Guide is now a more helpful resource. It provides a wealth of thematic approaches to teaching with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, teaching suggestions for individual works, questions and research projects, bibliographic resources for all authors, and a special section on teaching the vernacular traditions. Throughout, the Guide suggests ways to integrate the content of the Audio Companion CDs with the printed texts.


About the Author
Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Ph.D. Cambridge), General Editor, is W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities, Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University. He is the author of Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self; The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Criticism; Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars; Colored People: A Memoir; The Future of Race (with Cornel West); Wonders of the African World; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man; and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley; and editor of The African-American Century (with Cornel West); The Africana Encyclopedia (with Kwame Anthony Appiah); and The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Craft. Nellie Y. McKay (Ph.D. Harvard), General Editor, is Professor of American and Afro-American Literature, University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is associate editor of the African American Review; author of Jean Toomer—the Artist: A Study of His Literary Life and Work, 1894-1936; editor of Critical Essays on Toni Morrison; co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Beloved—A Casebook, and Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Welcomed on publication as "brilliant, definitive, and a joy to teach from," (Russ Castronovo, University of Miami) The Norton Anthology of African American Literature was adopted at more than 1,275 colleges and universities worldwide. Now, the new Second Edition offers these highlights:

Nine new writers The Second Edition includes nine new writers spanning three centuries: Jupiter Hammon, Venture Smith, Martin Delany, Elizabeth Keckley, Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, Colson Whitehead, and Harryette Mullen.

Strengthened Vernacular Tradition

Building on the editors' view that vernacular expression lives in performance, the original Audio Companion CD has been expanded to a two-CD set; Disc 1, Music, includes vocal and instrumental pieces-from ragtime to Motown. Disc 2, Spoken Word, offers 24 speeches, readings, and performances, from Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois to Amiri Baraka and Rita Dove.

11 complete longer works

Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (new); Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; Nella Larsen, Quicksand (new); Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground; Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha; Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun; Amiri Baraka, Dutchman; Ed Bullins, Goin'a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy; Adrienne Kennedy, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White; August Wilson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone (new).

Strengthened Apparatus and a More Readable Format

An extensive, new Selected General Bibliography Revised—some entirely rewritten—period introductions, headnotes, footnotes, and updated author bibliographies Updated timeline A new trim size and bolder typeface for easier reading

Thoroughly Revised "Literature Since 1975"

Succeeding the late Barbara Christian, new editor Cheryl A. Wall has included 5 new writers-poet Harryette Mullen and fiction writers Gayl Jones, Caryl Phillips, Edwidge Danticat, and Colson Whitehead. In addition, Wall has rewritten the period introduction and many headnotes in their entirety and updated all apparatus.

Course Guide by Joycelyn A. Moody, University of Washington Thoroughly revised, the Course Guide is now a more helpful resource. It provides a wealth of thematic approaches to teaching with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, teaching suggestions for individual works, questions and research projects, bibliographic resources for all authors, and a special section on teaching the vernacular traditions. Throughout, the Guide suggests ways to integrate the content of the Audio Companion CDs with the printed texts.

Author Biography: Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Ph.D. Cambridge), General Editor, is W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of Humanities, Chair of the Afro-American Studies Department, and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, Harvard University. He is the author of Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self; The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Criticism; Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars; Colored People: A Memoir; The Future of Race (with Cornel West); Wonders of the African World; Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man; and The Trials of Phillis Wheatley; and editor of The African-American Century (with Cornel West); The Africana Encyclopedia (with Kwame Anthony Appiah); and The Bondwoman's Narrative by Hannah Craft. Nellie Y. McKay (Ph.D. Harvard), General Editor, is Professor of American and Afro-American Literature, University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is associate editor of the African American Review; author of Jean Toomer—the Artist: A Study of His Literary Life and Work, 1894-1936; editor of Critical Essays on Toni Morrison; co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Beloved—A Casebook, and Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Toni Morrison.

SYNOPSIS