Harlem's Glory: Black Women Writing, 1900-1950

Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth Elizabeth Randolph

Harvard University Press, 1996 - Literary Criticism - 538 pages

In poems, stories, memoirs, and essays about color and culture, prejudice and love, and feminine trials, dozens of African-American women writers--some famous, many just discovered--give us a sense of a distinct inner voice and an engagement with their larger double culture. Harlem's Glory unfolds a rich tradition of writing by African-American women, hitherto mostly hidden, in the first half of the twentieth century. In historical context, with special emphasis on matters of race and gender, are the words of luminaries like Zora Neale Hurston and Georgia Douglas Johnson as well as rare, previously unpublished writings by figures like Angelina Weld Grimké, Elise Johnson McDougald, and Regina Andrews, all culled from archives and arcane magazines.

Editors Lorraine Elena Roses and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph arrange their selections to reveal not just the little-suspected extent of black women's writing, but its prodigious existence beyond the cultural confines of New York City. Harlem's Glory also shows how literary creativity often coexisted with social activism in the works of African-American women.

This volume is full of surprises about the power and diversity of the writers and genres. The depth, the wit, and the reach of the selections are astonishing. With its wealth of discoveries and rediscoveries, and its new slant on the familiar, all elegantly presented and deftly edited, the book will compel a reassessment of writing by African-American women and its place in twentieth-century American literary and historical culture.

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Harlem's glory: Black women writing, 1900-1950

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Roses and Randolph (Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1945, LJ 12/89) have done a great service in compiling this excellent anthology of African ...

User Review -

great book

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Sanctuary Nella Larsen: 9
• Two Gentlemen of Boston Florida Ruffin Ridley: 15
• A OneAct Play of Negro Life Alvira Hazzard: 21
• My Two Grandmothers Aloise Barbour Epperson: 30
• Masks a Story Eloise Bibb Thompson: 38
• A Play in One Act Regina M Andrews: 45
• Why How When and Where Black Becomes White: 56
• From Black and White Tangled Threads Zara Wright: 65
• DREAMING IN COLOR: 73
• The Pink Hat Caroline Bond Day: 79
• LaiLi Mae V Cowdery: 91
• The Noose Octavia B Wynbush: 97
• If Wishes Were Horses Edythe Mae Gordon: 104
• To a Wild Rose Ottie B Graham: 117
• New Orleans at Mardi Gras: 123
• Nativity Gladys Casely Hayford: 131
• Negroid Things Ida Rowland: 137
• Where the West Begins from American Daughter: 156
• From The Negro Trailblazers of California: 162
• LONGINGS: 175
• Afterglow Georgia Douglas Johnson: 181
• Joy Clarissa Scott Delany: 188
• Noblesse Oblige: 196
• SPUNK: 205
• The Negro Today Marion Vera Cuthbert: 219
• To the Oppressors Pauli Murray: 226
• Spunk Zora Neale Hurston: 233
• MY GREAT WIDE BEAUTIFUL WORLD: 239
• TwentySeventh Day from Journey to Accompong: 274
• Why Brenda Ray Moryck: 281
• The Corner Eunice Hunton Carter: 305
• Jellys Tale Zora Neale Hurston: 315
• From The Ebony Flute Gwendolyn B Bennett: 323
• Tar Shirley Graham: 329
• Solo on the Drums Ann Petry: 336
• IN THE LOOKING GLASS: 351
• Problems Facing Negro Young Women Marion Vera Cuthbert: 357
• Bidin Place May Miller: 372
• Lineage Margaret Walker: 378
• Letter to My Sister Anne Spencer: 387
• A Negro in a Dime Store Aloise Barbour Epperson: 395
• Illustration Credits: 537

About the author

Lorraine Elena Roses is Professor of Spanish and Director of Latin American Studies at Wellesley College.

Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, a graduate of Wellesley, is an independent scholar.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Harlem's Glory: Black Women Writing, 1900-1950
• Editors: Lorraine Elena Roses, Ruth Elizabeth Randolph
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0674372697, 9780674372696
• Length: 538 pages
• Subjects: Literary Criticism / American / African American & Black; Literary Criticism / Women Authors