May 2022: Black Authors

Black authors took center stage for the May 2002 meeting.  While not a limitation of the topic, all the authors presented are American authors.  They range from 19th century writers to those still publishing today and from fiction writers to scholarly authors.

The highlighted black authors are presented here in chronological order.

 

Charles W. Chesnutt  (1858 – 1932)

Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays

Chesnutt, Charles W.  Charles W. Chesnutt: Stories, Novels, and Essays. New York: Library of America, 2002.  939 pages.  This collection published by the Library of America includes some of Chesnutt's most important works, especially The Conjure Woman, first published in 1899.

Chesnutt was a lawyer and political activist.  In 1887 he founded a legal stenography (court reporting) business which gave him the financial means to focus on his writing.  In 1910, he joined the General Committee of the National Association of for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which had formed a year earlier, alongside W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.  He wrote articles advocating for equal opportunities for education and authored legal challenges to discriminatory laws on behalf of the NAACP.  He also wrote novels and short stories which explored racial identity using African American speech and folklore. 

 

Paul Laurence Dunbar  (1872 – 1906)

When Malindy Sings

Dunbar, Paul Laurence.  When Malindy Sings.  New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1903.  Dunbar's sixth poetry collection, first published in 1896.

The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar

Dunbar, Paul Laurence.  The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar.  New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1917.  A posthumous collection of all of Dunbar's published poems.

Dunbar was a poet, novelist, and short story writer from Dayton, Ohio.  At age 16, he published his first poem in the Dayton newspaper.  He published twelve poetry collections and six works of prose (novels and short story collections).  Dunbar wrote in both "conventional English" and Southern and Midwestern regional "Negro dialects."  After his work was praised by William Dean Hollins, an editor with Harper's Weekly, Dunbar achieved national popularity and was one of the first African American writers to gain an international reputation.  Dunbar also wrote the lyrics to In Dahomey, the first all-African American musical produced on Broadway in 1903.  Dunbar died of tuberculosis at the age of 33.

 

James Deotis Roberts  (1927 – )

Faith and Reason

Roberts, James Deotis.  Faith and Reason: A Comparative Study of Pascal, Bergson, and James.  Boston: The Christopher Publishing House, 1962.  First edition.  This little-known title is a distillation of Roberts's doctoral dissertation.  He earned his Ph.D. in philosophical theology from Edinburgh University in 1959.  This copy is inscribed by the author on the front free end paper.

Roberts was among the first generation of African Americans to earn post-graduate degrees in the United States (though he completed his doctorate in Scotland).  An ordained Baptist minister, Roberts pastored churches in North Carolina and Connecticut while in seminary before teaching full time after completing his Ph.D.  Roberts served as the Dean of Religion at Georgia Baptist College, the president of the Interdenominational Theological Center, and Distinguished Professor of Philosophical Theology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Roberts is a pioneering figure in Black Theology, most noted for his books on political theology, including A Black Political Theology (1974), Black Theology in Dialogue (1987), and The Prophethood of Black Believers: An African American Political Theology for Ministry (1994).

 

Maya Angelou  (1928 – 2014)

On the Pulse of Morning

Angelou, Maya.  On the Pulse of Morning.  New York: Random House, 1993.  First printing of the poem recited by the poet at the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton on January 20, 1993.  Angelou was the second poet to be part of a presidential inauguration (after Robert Frost, who read his poem at the 1961 inauguration of President John F. Kennedy), and the first woman and person of color to do so.

Still I Rise

Angelou, Maya.  Still I Rise.  New York: Random House, 2001.  Illustrations by Diego Rivera.  A reprint of Angelou's inspiring poem interwoven with vivid paintings by Diego Rivera.  "Still I Rise" was first published in 1978 in Angelou's third poetry collection, And Still I Rise.

Angelou was a poet and memoirist.  She published 7 memoirs, 18 books of poetry, 3 essay collections along with several cookbooks, children's books, and other works including television, film, and stage writing credits.  Her first memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), propelled her to international acclaim.  Throughout her career, she received numerous literary awards as well as a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971).  She also received many civic and arts awards as well as more than 50 honorary degrees.  Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2011.

 

Ernest J. Gaines  (1933 – 2019)

A Lesson Before Dying

Gaines, Ernest.  A Lesson Before Dying.  New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.  Gaines's eight novel is based on the true story of Willis Francis, a Black juvenile offender who at the age of 16 survived a failed execution by electrocution in a Louisiana prison.  It won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

The Tragedy of Brady Sims

Gaines, Ernest.  The Tragedy of Brady Sims.  New York: Vintage, 2017.  Gaines's last novel, published two years before the author's death.

Gaines was born on a plantation near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, into a sharecropper family and grew up living in old slave quarters on the plantation; this experience informed the settings for many of his later works.  Gaines authored nine novels and several short stories and essays; he is best known for three of his novels, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), A Gathering of Old Men (1983), and A Lesson Before Dying (1993).  In 2007, the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence was established in his honor as an annual national literary award to recognize rising African American fiction writers.

 

James H. Cone  (1938 – 2018)

A Black Theology of Liberation

Cone, James H.  A Black Theology of Liberation.  Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1970.  First edition.  This association copy bears a later inscription on the front free end paper by the author to Civil Rights icon Reverend C. T. Vivian.

Cone received his formal education at the end of the wave of the first African Americans to receive post-graduate degrees, receiving his doctorate in 1965.  His professors in his undergraduate and graduate studies were all white; this experience, along with the guidance of Benjamin E. Mays, compelled Cone—who studied theology but did not want to become a pastor—to pursue teaching and scholarship.  Cone became one of the leading academic figures in Black Theology, authoring such seminal works as Black Theology and Black Power (1969), A Black Theology of Liberation (1970), and God of the Oppressed (1975).  Cone began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in 1970 and served as Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology until his death in 2018.

 

Samuel R. Delany  (1942 – )

Babel-17 and The Einstein Intersection

Delany, Samuel R.  Babel-17.  New York: Ace Books, 1966.  Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel published in 1966.

Delany, Samuel R.  The Einstein Intersection.  New York: Ace Books, 1967.  Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Science Fiction Novel published in 1967.

Dhalgren and Babel-17

Delany, Samuel R.  Babel-17.  London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1967.  The Gollancz edition, published the following year.

Delany, Samuel R.  Dhalgren.  New York: Bantam Books, 1973.  Delany's magnum opus and best-selling title.

Delany is primarily a science fiction writer, but he is also highly regarded as a poet and literary critic.  Delany's work includes recurring themes of mythology, memory, language, sexuality, gender, and perception.  Class, social position, and the ability to move from one social stratum to another are motifs which appear throughout his fiction and non-fiction.  In addition to his consecutive Nebula Award wins and other literary awards, Delany was inducted into the Science Fiction & Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2002 and was awarded Grand Master status by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 2013.  Delany retired from writing in 2015 and a year later was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame.

 

Alice Walker  (1944 – )

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

Walker, Alice.  In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983.  First edition, second printing.  The collection of nonfiction prose opens with four definitions of the term womanist.  Walker coined the term womanist to describe "a black feminist or feminist of color" focused on the intersection of race, class, and gender oppression.  The term has been adopted by scholars in various academic fields, notably theology and ethics.  This copy bears a later signature by the author on the title page.

The Temple of My Familiar

Walker, Alice.  The Temple of My Familiar.  San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.  First edition.  This copy is signed and dated by the author on the half title page; the signature is dated 5/9/89, shortly after the title's April 1, 1989, release date.

We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Walker, Alice.  We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness.  New York: The New Press, 2006.  First edition.  This copy is signed by the author on the title page.

Walker was born in Eatonton, Georgia, and attended segregated schools there through high school, graduating valedictorian from the only Black high school in the town.  Much of her fiction, like The Color Purple (1982), takes place in unnamed Southern places which resemble her central Georgia upbringing.  The Color Purple earned Walker the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction.  She has published 13 novels and short story collections, 10 poetry collections, and 11 nonfiction books.  In 2001, she was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

 

Octavia E. Butler  (1947 – 2006)

Parable of the Sower

Butler, Octavia.  Parable of the Sower.  New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1993.  The first novel in the Parable (or Earthseed) series.  Published in the 1990s, the series depicts the struggles of the Earthseed community as 21st Century America is on the verge of economic and political collapse.

Parable of the Talents

Butler, Octavia.  Parable of the Talents.  New York: Seven Stories Press, 1998.  The second and final novel in the Parable (or Earthseed) series.  Butler initially planned six books in the Parable series but abandoned the project after The Parable of the Talents, which won the Nebula Award for Best Novel.

Butler was born and raised in a racially integrated community in Pasadena, California, and experienced ethnic and cultural diversity as a child while much of the country remained stunted by racial segregation.  She began writing science fiction as a teenager.  After several years of modest success as a full-time writer, she attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop where she met and formed a longtime friendship with Samuel R. Delany.  Following the Clarion workshop, her writing grew in popularity and critical acclaim with several successful science fiction series as she found her own voice as a writer and broke free of the white- and male-dominated conventions of most science fiction.

 

P. K. McCary  (1953 – )

Black Bible Chronicles and Rappin' with Jesus

McCary, P. K.  Black Bible Chronicles: From Genesis to the Promised Land.  New York: African American Family Press, 1993.  Book One of the Black Bible Chronicles series.  An interpretation of the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

McCary, P. K.  Rappin' with Jesus: The Good News According to the Four Brothers.  New York: African American Family Press, 1993.  Book Two of the Black Bible Chronicles series.  An interpretation of the four gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

McCary is a journalist who has written for major newspapers across the country including Houston, Denver, Washington DC, and Atlanta.  Black Bible Chronicles and Rappin' with Jesus are her first two books.  As an author, McCary was deeply influenced by her grandfather, a minister, whom she credits for instilling in her an abiding faith, which inspired her to write a biblical interpretation in a language young people might better understand.  In a foreword to Black Bible Chronicles, The Honorable Andrew Young writes:

Important to our young people's understanding of the Word is the manner in which the Bible is communicated.  To be truly relevant to their experience, it must be in a language familiar to them.

The Black Bible Chronicles is an attempt to put the most important message of life in the language of the streets.

To illustrate McCary's "language of the streets," consider the opening of the Bible, Genesis 1.1-5.  The New Revised Standard Version opens:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.  Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.  And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

McCary's interpretation opens:

Now when the Almighty was first down with His program, He made the heavens and the earth.  The earth was a fashion misfit, being so uncool and dark, but the Spirit of the Almighty came down real tough, so that He simply said, "Lighten up!"  And that light was right on time.  And the Almighty liked what He saw and let the light hang out a while before it was dark again.  He laid out a name for the light, calling it "day" time and the dark He called "night" time so that all around it made up the first day.

 

Margaret Aymer  (1968 – )

First Pure, Then Peaceable

Aymer, Margaret P.  First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James.  London: T & T Clark, 2008.  First edition.  This title is a slight revision of Aymer's doctoral dissertation.  This copy is inscribed on the front free end paper by the author to a friend and colleague, bearing an inside joke.

Aymer is a first generation West Indian-American scholar.  She is currently the Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament Studies at Austin Theological Seminary.  Active in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), she has served the denomination in a number of committee appointments, including the steering committee for the Committee on Theological Education Consultation on Racism from 2004-2008.  She has published two books on the New Testament epistle of James: First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James (2008) and James: Diaspora Rhetoric of a Friend of God (2014).  She has also contributed to other commentaries and anthologies in biblical studies, including Fortress Commentary on the Bible (2014) and Islanders, Islands and the Bible: Ruminations (2015).

The collector adds: "This book was fun to present to the group because it contains two footnotes which acknowledge the contributions of two members of the Atlanta Antiquarian Book Circle and thanks them for their help with the dissertation.  One collector served as a reader and offered feedback during the writing process, and another provided the author with access to primary source materials from his collection."

 

Mat Johnson  (1970 – )

Incognegro

Johnson, Mat.  Incognegro.  New York: Vertigo, 2008.  Illustrated by Warren Pleece.

Johnson is a biracial fiction writer whose works include both prose and comics.  His work explores themes of racial and cultural identity.  He is the recipient of several writing awards and fellowships including the United States Artist James Baldwin Fellowship and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, which honors Black writers in the United States and internationally for literary achievement. 

 

Tochi Onyebuchi  (1987 – )

Riot Baby

Onyebuchi, Tochi.  Riot Baby.  New York: Tor, 2020. This novel was inspired by the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the lack of indictments of the police officers who killed them.  The book was a finalist for the 2021 Hugo Award for Best Novella.  It won the World Fantasy Award for best novella, the Ignyte Award for best novella, and the American Library Association's Alex Award for young adult fiction.

Onyebuchi is a first generation Nigerian-American fantasy and science fiction writer.  A former civil rights attorney, he often includes civil rights themes in his stories.  He drew on his experience as a lawyer in setting Riot Baby in New York's Rikers Island, where the main character is wrongfully incarcerated.