From Library Journal
This first audiobook to give the full perspective of Hansberry's short but brilliant career includes a full-cast (Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and James Earl Jones, among others) recording of A Raisin in the Sun, a dramatized reading from To Be Young, Gifted and Black (TBYGB), plus scattered interviews and speeches. The somewhat confusing TBYGB is, as explained in the print version, a montage of journal excerpts, speeches, letters, biographical accounts, and relevant fragments from plays, posthumously compiled "to relate the artist to the person." As play fragments look backward, presenting old-style blacks, the speeches and diary entries look remarkably forward. Listeners will hardly believe their ears when they hear Mike Wallace (60 Minutes) in 1959, attacking Hansberry for winning the New York Drama Critics Best Play award (overpowering plays by Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Archibald MacLeish), insisting she won simply because she is black. Here, and elsewhere, the playwright defends herself and her race with poise and distinction. Cumulatively, these tapes reveal her as a skilled, often underrated visionary. Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
This fascinating anthology is a four-tape education in the mind and art of Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). It collects the classic 1969 Caedmon recording of Hansberry's most famous play, A RAISIN IN THE SUN (with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis), two author interviews mostly about the play (with Mike Wallace and Studs Terkel) from 1959, the 1972 Caedmon recording of the stage self-portrait TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK (posthumously assembled from her autobiographical writings by Hansberry's ex-husband Robert Nemiroff), and five short speeches by Hansberry. These important recordings have been digitally mixed and mastered and sound fine. Harper/ Caedmon deserves praise for their thoroughness in assembling a collection so rich in literature and history. G.H. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Book Description
Lorraine Hansberry wrote of Black consciousness before it was fashionable, but she bequeathed to all of us a legacy astounding in its richness and relevancy. Few writers, black or white, are more relevant to present-day America than Lorraine Hansberry.Here, for the first time, Caedmon has gathered many of her plays, interviews, and speeches into one unforgettable collection.A Raisin in the Sun: an emotionally lacerating landmark of modem American theatre. A full-cast production starring Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.To Be Young, Gifted and Black: a glowing, vibrant, searing and, at the same time, redemptively joyous self-portrait. A full-cast production starring James Earl Jones.Lorraine Hansberry Speaks Out: seven interviews and speeches, recorded between 1959 and 1964, that range in topic from integration to backlash to the greatness and limitations of AfricanAmerican leadership.

About the Author
Lorraine Hansberry was the youngest American playwright ever to win the Best American Play Award from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. Her other worksinclude The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and Les Blancs. She died of cancer at thirty-four.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

A Raisin in the Sun is a powerful, prize-winning play, with the full cast recording featuring Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Claudia McNeil, and Diana Sands. To Be Young, Gifted and Black is a series of short vignettes, monologues, and mood pieces that feature gospel singing and related instrumental music, with superb actors, James Earl Jones and Claudia McNeil among them; the result is a thrilling and powerful listening experience. This audio also features the author discussing her work and philosophy, the theater, the black experience, and the challenge of the artist in nid-10th-century America.

About the Author:Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun was the first drama by a black woman to be produced on Broadway. Hansberry's To Be Young, Gifted, and Black, was produced Off-Broadway in 1969—after her premature death of cancer at the age of 34.

FROM THE CRITICS

Martin Luther King

Her commitment of spirit...her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Her commitment of spirit...her creative ability and her profound grasp of the deep social issues confronting the world today will remain an inspiration to generations yet unborn.

Library Journal

This first audiobook to give the full perspective of Hansberry's short but brilliant career includes a full-cast (Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, and James Earl Jones, among others) recording of A Raisin in the Sun, a dramatized reading from To Be Young, Gifted and Black (TBYGB), plus scattered interviews and speeches. The somewhat confusing TBYGB is, as explained in the print version, a montage of journal excerpts, speeches, letters, biographical accounts, and relevant fragments from plays, posthumously compiled "to relate the artist to the person." As play fragments look backward, presenting old-style blacks, the speeches and diary entries look remarkably forward. Listeners will hardly believe their ears when they hear Mike Wallace (60 Minutes) in 1959, attacking Hansberry for winning the New York Drama Critics Best Play award (overpowering plays by Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Archibald MacLeish), insisting she won simply because she is black. Here, and elsewhere, the playwright defends herself and her race with poise and distinction. Cumulatively, these tapes reveal her as a skilled, often underrated visionary. Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

AudioFile