Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940

by Trudier Harris (Editor), Thadious M. Davis

This volume-one of six DLB volumes discussing African-American writers-represents a peak period in African-American literary activity sometimes called the Harlem Renaissance or New Negro era, and lasting from about 1915 to the early 30s. During this time, African-American artists and writers from cities all around the U.S. flocked to Harlem and began a decade of striving to change popular perceptions of their people. As Trudier Harris describes the writers of this period in the volumes They sought...to change racist attitudes but to preserve African heritage, to diminish isolation between races but to nurture distinctive racial characteristics. 34 entries Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Georgia Douglas Johnson, ClaudeMcKay, George Samuel Schuyler, Jean Toomer and Walter Francis White.

352 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1986

About the author

Trudier Harris is a literary historian at University of Alabama. She was formerly the J. Carlyle Sitterson Distinguished Professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill