Harlem Renaissance Lives [Hardcover]

Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Editor), Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 27, 2009

The Harlem Renaissance is the best known and most widely studied cultural movement in African American history. Now, in Harlem Renaissance Lives, esteemed scholars Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham have selected 300 key biographical entries culled from the eight-volume African American National Biography, providing an authoritative who's who of this seminal period. Here readers will find engagingly written and authoritative articles on notable African Americans who made significant contributions to literature, drama, music, visual art, or dance, including such central figures as poet Langston Hughes, novelist Zora Neale Hurston, aviator Bessie Coleman, blues singer Ma Rainey, artist Romare Bearden, dancer Josephine Baker, jazzman Louis Armstrong, and the intellectual giant W. E. B. Du Bois. Also included are biographies of people like the Scottsboro Boys, who were not active within the movement but who nonetheless profoundly affected the artistic and political statements that came from Harlem Renaissance figures. The volume will also feature a preface by the editors, an introductory essay by historian Cary D. Wintz, and 75 illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up—A spin-off of the eight-volume African American National Biography (Oxford Univ., 2008), this volume reprints profiles of 300 prominent figures of the era. Following a new overview essay, the signed articles begin with an entry on newspaper publisher Robert Sangstache Abbott of the Defender fame, conclude with author Richard Wright, and in between mix biographies of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and other widely studied figures with introductions to subjects such as Casper Holstein (philanthropist, activist, and numbers banker) and comedian Moms Mabley. Each one- to nine-column entry opens with a quick identifier, goes on to describe its subject's youth and career, and closes with a critical evaluation of the individual's contributions, capped by a substantial list of leads to print resources, some archival. The lack of a topical index omits an important access point, and both the scanty assortment of small black-and-white photos and the dense look of the double-columned pages will keep all but the assignment-driven away. Still, this is an excellent companion to the more detailed overview and the primary-source material found in Kevin Hillstrom's The Harlem Renaissance (Omnigraphics, 2008).—John Peters, New York Public Library
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Review

"This authoritative reference work will prove a useful acquisition for high school, public, and academic libraries; particularly for smaller institutions that lack the African American National Biography."--Library Journal

"Harlem Renaissance Lives is a good source of reference for any library." -- Choice

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195387953
• ISBN-13: 978-0195387957
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,925,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)