African-American Writers: A Dictionary
African-American Writers: A Dictionary
Edited by Shari Dorantes Hatch and Michael R. Strickland
Published by ABC-CLIO, 2000.
This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 484 pages including a list of the writers by genre, a chronology of writers, a chronology of historic "firsts" in African American literature, the bibliography and the index, plus a brief foreword, preface, and acknowledgments.
This is a straightforward literary dictionary of African-American writers, covering individuals who created or create poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, opinion pieces, and other works. There are hundreds of writers included. Entries range in length from brief paragraphs on a two-column page to several pages.
The preface describes an interesting strength of the book:
You can also use our encyclopedia to find out some of the interesting connections among authors. For instance, what are some of the common characteristics and distinctive aspects of the narratives of former slaves? Which African-American writers were helped by the 1930's-era Federal Writers Project? Which writers were influenced by a distinctive region such as rural Mississippi or urban Detroit? Which writers were orphaned at a tender age? Which writers had to overcome tremendous economic and social hardships in order to put pen to paper? How did it affect writers to have particularly light skin and European facial features? Which writers mentored a series of contemporary writers? Which writers put their careers on hold while they stopped to raise children - their own or those of others - and which writers started writing as a means of supporting their children?..."
The index can be helpful in uncovering these links, but many require spending quality time with the book in order to reveal them.
Opening the book at random, I'm at page 155, looking at the entry for Lorraine (Vivian) Hansberry, which runs for two and a half pages and has a publicity photo. The entry is very informative, going into interesting biographical detail about her background as well as her political activities, in addition to her literary contributions.
This is a very useful book.
Edited by Shari Dorantes Hatch and Michael R. Strickland
Published by ABC-CLIO, 2000.
This is a 7" by 10" hardbound book running to 484 pages including a list of the writers by genre, a chronology of writers, a chronology of historic "firsts" in African American literature, the bibliography and the index, plus a brief foreword, preface, and acknowledgments.
This is a straightforward literary dictionary of African-American writers, covering individuals who created or create poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, opinion pieces, and other works. There are hundreds of writers included. Entries range in length from brief paragraphs on a two-column page to several pages.
The preface describes an interesting strength of the book:
You can also use our encyclopedia to find out some of the interesting connections among authors. For instance, what are some of the common characteristics and distinctive aspects of the narratives of former slaves? Which African-American writers were helped by the 1930's-era Federal Writers Project? Which writers were influenced by a distinctive region such as rural Mississippi or urban Detroit? Which writers were orphaned at a tender age? Which writers had to overcome tremendous economic and social hardships in order to put pen to paper? How did it affect writers to have particularly light skin and European facial features? Which writers mentored a series of contemporary writers? Which writers put their careers on hold while they stopped to raise children - their own or those of others - and which writers started writing as a means of supporting their children?..."
The index can be helpful in uncovering these links, but many require spending quality time with the book in order to reveal them.
Opening the book at random, I'm at page 155, looking at the entry for Lorraine (Vivian) Hansberry, which runs for two and a half pages and has a publicity photo. The entry is very informative, going into interesting biographical detail about her background as well as her political activities, in addition to her literary contributions.
This is a very useful book.