New Publication
Posted on March 6, 2012 | No Comments
The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago, 1932-1950 by Robert Bone and Richard A. Courage was released in late 2011 by Rutgers University Press.
This dynamic reappraisal of a neglected period in African American cultural history examines Black Chicago’s “Renaissance” through richly anecdotal profiles of such figures as Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, Charles White, Gordon Parks, Horace Cayton, Muddy Waters, Mahalia Jackson, and Katherine Dunham. Coming of age during the hard Depression years and in the wake of the Great Migration, these artists and intellectuals produced works of literature, music, and visual art fully comparable in distinction and scope to the achievements of their counterparts in 1920s Harlem.
The Muse in Bronzeville will interest both the scholar and general reader and is suitable for use in twentieth-century American and African American studies courses.
The book is available from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other online booksellers, but the best price for the paperback is $23.96, when ordered directly from Rutgers UP. Order online at http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/the_muse_of_bronzeville.html. Enter discount code 02AAAA11 . That code entitles you to free shipping and 20% off the list price of $29.95. There is also an electronic edition in Kindle, available from Amazon and priced at $16.47.
Early responses to the book have been very positive:
• Charles Bethea, curator of the DuSable Museum of African American History, comments: “Finally setting the record straight, the book brings to the forefront the cultural awakening of black consciousness exploding in the Midwest during the first half of the 20th-century. Bone and Courage masterfully blend the history of Chicago’s South Side as the incubator of cultural expression and the black aesthetic in page-turning prose.”
• Eminent historian David Levering Lewis writes: “Richard Courage’s monumental The Muse in Bronzeville completes Robert Bone’s ambitious Chicago project and provides a shift of focus in African American literary scholarship. Chicago finally emerges as the vibrant counterpart of the Harlem Renaissance.”
• Distinguished literary scholar Amritjit Singh observes: “The Muse synthesizes wide-ranging material . . . into a compelling critical narrative. . . . Bone and Courage move astutely from close readings of novels and poems to richly informative analyses of musical performances and visual works of art. . . . The authors have unearthed historical gems that extend or challenge our understanding of how various actors situated themselves during this turbulent period.”
New Publication
Posted on August 10, 2011 | No Comments
The Wright Connection is pleased to announce the publication of Richard Wright: New Readings in the 21st Century, edited by Alice Mikal Craven and William E. Dow (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Gathering some of the most important Wright scholarship in the world, along with perspectives from emerging Wright critics, Richard Wright: New Readings in the 21st Century, explores new themes and theoretical orientations.
Essays center on modernism, racism and spatial dimensions, the transnational and political Wright, Wright and class, Wright and the American 1950s and 1960s, and some of the first analyses of Wright’s recently published A Father’s Law (2008). This dynamic collection combines literary and cultural theory with methods of archival research to provide an expanded vision of Wright’s impact on thinking in the twenty-first century.
Wright Bibliography Resumes
Posted on June 30, 2011 | No Comments
The Richard Wright Circle is pleased to announce its resumption of providing updated Wright bibliography for users of the WRIGHT CONNECTION. Both the Circle and the Project on the History of Black Writing are very grateful to Marilyn Lee, Serials Librarian at Xavier University (New Orleans), for her initiative in continuing the bibliographic work begun by Keneth Kinnamon , who until his death was the Circle’s official bibliographer.
The new bibliography will continue to reflect Kinnamon’s belief that all published mentions of Richard Wright and his works must be documented.
We invite users of WRIGHT CONNECTION to submit complete citations in MLA format for items not listed here for the period 2004-2011. Contributors will be acknowledged by having their initials appear after the entry or entries they send. Entries may be sent to wrightconnection@ku.edu
Sincerely,
Maryemma Graham and Jerry W. Ward, Jr. for the Richard Wright Circle
Bibliography Notes
Posted on August 8, 2008 | No Comments
The most valuable guides to Wright’s published and unpublished works are Richard Wright: A Primary Bibliography (1982), compiled by Michel Fabre and Charles T. Davis and Timothy G. Young’s finding aid for RICHARD WRIGHT PAPERS, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Keneth Kinnamon’s A Richard Wright Bibliography: Fifty Years of Criticism and Commentary, 1933-1982 (1988) and Richard Wright: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism and Commentary, 1983-2003 (2006) are the most comprehensive guides to secondary sources, including books, articles, reviews, doctoral dissertations, master’s theses, handbooks, study guides, interviews, chapters in books and encyclopedia articles. For listings of materials after 2003, one should consult the annual MLA International Bibliography and on-line databases.
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