Modern Black Writers (A Library of Literary Criticism) [Hardcover]

Steven R. Serafin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1995 | ISBN-10: 0826406882 | ISBN-13: 978-0826406880

"Even more than the first volume, Modern Black Writers makes it easy to obtain critical insights into authors for whom such information can otherwise be hard to come by". -- Booklist

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The update of a critical guide to black writers published 15 years ago (LJ 11/1/78), this reference includes excerpts on Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and others.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This volume in the Library of Literary Criticism series is the long-awaited supplement to Modern Black Writers (1978), which was compiled by Michael Popkin. It provides a collection of excerpts of criticism on 125 authors from 32 countries. Only 27 of the authors were also treated in the first volume. Among the new writers here are Maya Angelou, Alice Childress, Lucille Clifton, Rita Dove, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, Wole Soyinka, Derek Walcott, and August Wilson.

Those writing in English or French constitute the majority of the authors in the supplement, but there is some representation of authors writing in Portuguese and Swahili, as well as other African languages and dialects. At the front of the source is an alphabetical list of authors by country. A number of the treated authors are also critics, and there is a list of those who wrote criticism included in the book, followed by a list of the periodicals from which the criticism was excerpted. Closing the work are a list of authors and their works mentioned in the critical selections and an index to the authors of the criticism.

This supplement is a must for libraries holding the 1978 volume. While there are other sources of criticism for black American writers (e.g., Scribner's African American Writers), this series is useful for its coverage of writers throughout the black diaspora. Gale's Black Writers provides biographies of both American and African writers and references to criticism, but not the criticism itself.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 813 pages
• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group (Sd) (February 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826406882
• ISBN-13: 978-0826406880
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,917,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)