How I Wrote Jubilee: And Other Essays on Life and Literature [Paperback]

Margaret Walker (Author), Maryemma Graham (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558610049 | ISBN-13: 978-1558610040 | Publication Date: January 1, 1993

   This first comprehensive collection of Margaret Walker's autobiographical and literary essays has been acclaimed as "a powerful social history and as a serious study of black American literature."-Kirkus Review In the title essay, Walker recounts the search for family and social history from which she wrote her carefully researched novel of the Civil War. The autobiographical essays reflect on her work and her life as an artist, as African-American, and a woman, while the literary essays examine the writings of such giants as Richard Wright, W.E.B. DuBois, Phyllis Wheatley, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and others. "Spanning a half-century (1943to 1988), these brilliant, intimate writings capture the flavor of the times and powerfully convey the social and literary thoughts that distinguishes Walker as one of the intellectual beacons of her generation."-Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While Walker is generally acknowledged to be an important 20th-century poet and novelist, this first collection of her essays will further secure her place in American political and cultural life. The essays, written over the last 50+ years of Walker's career as a writer, teacher, scholar, and activist, compellingly recount the personal history of a woman for whom individual expression is an essential form of the struggle against racism, sexism, and classism. Her readings of Southern writers represent an original way of thinking about how race figures in the work of white and black writers. Walker's radical humanist perspective ought to reinvigorate current critical 'discussions of race, gender, class, and literature.
- Molly Brodsky, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Margaret Walker was one the most highly regarded African American poets and writers. She joined the Federal Writers' Project with Richard Wright and Gwendolyn Brooks and taught English at Jackson State University from 1946 to 1979.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY (January 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558610049
• ISBN-13: 978-1558610040
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,519,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a great book for Black Literature., October 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: How I Wrote Jubilee (English and English Edition) (Paperback)

This book focuses on a young girl name Vyry who has to face many choices in life. First the death of her mother. Then this mean old 18th century devil Selina. She experiences many people like her first love Randall Ware, and Innis Brown. She has to make a choice between these men.