by Arna Wendell Bontemps (Author), Arna Bontemps (Editor), Arna Bontemps (Introduction by)

With 200,000 copies in print, this anthology has for decades been seen as a fundamental collection of African-American verse. Bontemps (1902-73), an important figure during and after the Harlem Renaissance, author of more than 25 novels, and longtime librarian at Fisk University, last revised this classic anthology just before his death, adding such crucial new voices as Audre Lorde, Nikki Giovanni, and Bob Kaufman, among others.

This edition, issued in 1996, reprints the poems in Bontemps's revised volume along with updated biographical notes. Nearly seventy poets are represented, their works indexed by both author and title.

Author Biography

Arna Bontemps (1902-1973), produced more than twenty-five novels, anthologies, children's books, and histories of black life, including the novel God Sends Sunday and The Story of the Negro. Bontemps's later years were spent at Fisk University as chief librarian and writer-in-residence.