African American Authors, 1745-1945

There has been a dramatic resurgence of interest in early African American writing. Since the accidental rediscovery and republication of Harriet Wilson's Our Nig in 1983, the works of dozens of 19th and early 20th century black writers have been recovered and reprinted. There is now a significant revival of interest in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s; and in the last decade alone, several major assessments of 18th and 19th century African American literature have been published. Early African American literature builds on a strong oral tradition of songs, folktales, and sermons. Slave narratives began to appear during the late 18th and early 19th century, and later writers began to engage a variety of themes in diverse genres.A central objective of this reference book is to provide a wide-ranging introduction to the first 200 years of African American literature. Included are alphabetically arranged entries for 78 black writers active between 1745 and 1945. Among these writers are essayists, novelists, short story writers, poets, playwrights, and autobiographers. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides a biography, a discussion of major works and themes, an overview of the author's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies. The volume concludes with a selected, general bibliography.

?[m]akes a very useful contribution to the study of African American culture. It will be helpful to scholars working on literature written before the 1940s.?-Resources for American Literary Study, ?[S]olid, astute analysis.?-Booklist, ?African American Authors, 1745-1945 is a very useful reference source. It should be acquired by all libraries, academic or public, where there is serious interest in American literature.?-American Reference Books Annual, ?Recommended for libraries supporting African American studies and general readers.?-Choice, "Ým¨akes a very useful contribution to the study of African American culture. It will be helpful to scholars working on literature written before the 1940s."-Resources for American Literary Study

EMMANUEL S. NELSON is Professor of English at the State University of New York College at Cortland. He is the author of more than 30 articles, and his previous books include Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (1999), Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (1993), Writers of the Indian Diaspora: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (1993), and Reworlding: The Literature of the Indian Diaspora (1992), all available from Greenwood Press.