From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-This tome is not for the faint of heart, because any reading of literary criticism of this type requires a special maturity, a particular knowledge base, and high interest, making it especially unsuited for average high school students. It can, however, be a wonderful text for honors or AP English literature classes. This narrow audience is in no way a reflection on the quality of the essays and the issues and questions they raise. Still, a book like this, to be completely useful, needs an audience with enough background to be able to agree or disagree with the theoretical perspective presented.Carol Jones Collins, Columbia High School, Maplewood, NJCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
This volume focuses on the principal African-American poets from colonial times through the Harlem Renaissance, paying tribute to a heritage that has long been overlooked. Works covered in this text include poems by Phillis Wheatley, widely recognized as the first volume of poetry published by an African American, as well as the work of Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, Melvin Beaunorus Tolson. This title, African-American Poets: Volume I, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of African-American Poets: Volume I through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on African-American Poets: Volume I, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University.

FROM THE CRITICS

School Library Journal