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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE Wilfred Samuels Associate Editors Loretta Gilchrist Woodard Tracie Church Guzzio
Encyclopedia of African-American Literature Copyright © 2007 by Wilfred Samuels All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-10: 0-8160-5073-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-5073-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of African American literature / Wilfred D. Samuels, editor; Tracie Guzzio, associate editor, Loretta Gilchrist Woodard, associate editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8160-5073-2 (acid-free paper) 1. American literature—African American authors—Encyclopedias. 2. American literature— African American authors—Bio-bibliography—Dictionaries. 3. African American authors —Biography—Dictionaries. 4. African Americans—Intellectual life—Encyclopedias. 5. African Americans in literature—Encyclopedias. I. Samuels, Wilfred D. II. Guzzio, Tracie. III. Woodard, Loretta Gilchrist. PS153.N5E48 2007 810.9'896073003—dc22 2006026140 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Rachel Berlin Cover design by Takeshi Takahashi Printed in the United States of America VB KT 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Table of ConTenTs
Introduction
iv
Acknowledgments
x
A to Z Entries
1
Bibliography of Secondary Sources
581
Major Works by African-American Writers
585
List of Contributors
593
Index
595
INTRODUCTION
We have always been imagining ourselves . . . we are the subjects of our own narratives, witnesses to and participants in our own experience. . . . We are not, in fact, “other.” (Morrison, 208)
style that constitutes the foundation and heartbeat of the African-American literary tradition. During the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, unknown black bards, as James Weldon Johnson recounts, placed their lips to the sacred fire of poetry and created “sorrow songs” whose lyrics responded to the dehumanization of the world of chattel slavery, a world that, in the end, reduced African Americans to “three-fifths other.” In their songs, they registered their personal humanity and simultaneously humanized the troubled and troubling world around them. The lyrics of such songs as “Steal Away,” “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and “Motherless Child,” as well as the didactic and often humorous narratives and tales about Brer Rabbit, Tar Baby, and High John de Conquer, commented on current conditions, passed on traditions, entertained, and offered lessons in morality and virtue in the “broken tongue” that black people created. But when exposed to the written texts and more formal language of Western culture, African Americans also put pen to paper to create works of merit. For example, kidnapped between the ages of seven or eight, Ethiopian-born Phillis Wheatley confounded the community of her New England “city upon a hill,” the cradle of many Founding Fathers, with her broadsides and eventually with
In this profoundly proud, eloquent, and bold declaration, novelist Toni Morrison takes on those “serious scholars” and new discoverers of what she defines as a rich “Afro-American