I'm doing a paper on the Harlem Renaissance

[trane_fanatic]

...anybody here know of good resources besides Google, Wikipedia and online research libraries?

Books, maybe? A lame post, I know. But any resources you guys can point me to are appreciated.

Edited December 16, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[Jazzmoose]

Wasn't there a bulletin board somewhere....?

[trane_fanatic]

I'm looking more for specific recommendations bookswise. Are there any that stand out?

Edited December 16, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[PHILLYQ]

...anybody here know of good resources besides Google, Wikipedia and online research libraries?

Books, maybe? A lame post, I know. But any resources you guys can point me to are appreciated.

I would caution you on using Wikipedia as a primary source- articles there can be edited incorrectly or be chock full of errors to begin with. You might want to try some bios of the heavyweights of the time, such as Langston Hughes, Duke, etc.

I don't know if it exists, but if there is an online presence for the Schomburg Center they would likely have some very good material.

[Chuck Nessa]

Do not ignore the LOC.

[Jazzmoose]

The only serious advice I can give at this time is to grab any decent African-American history text and head for the bibliography.

[clifford_thornton]

Do not ignore the LOC.

Agreed. Also university libraries and archives, the NYPL, etc. could be of some help.

Found this pretty quickly:

Harlem Renaissance Bibliography

[David Ayers]

There is a useful Harlem Renaissance Reader published by Viking/Penguin, and you might start with Houston A Baker, Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. A very useful general reference work is the Oxford Companion to African American Literature.

[Neal Pomea]

For library databases:

RILM Abstracts of Music Literature

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

In Dissertations and Theses, find a dissertation and go to the appendix with the bibliography and see what all is listed there. The writers need to thoroughly survey the literature. Hope that helps.

[AllenLowe]

the absolute best thing I've ever read on the Harlem Renaissance is Gerald Early's introduction to a book on Countee Cullen - I'm not sure if I can locate it but I will try to get you a citation -

[AllenLowe]

here it is:

My Soul's High Song; the Collected Writings of Countee Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance. É Gerald Early, ed. (1991) Doubleday.)

Early's intro about the Harlem Renaissance as more insight than about 50 other academic articles of read. It is essential -

Edited December 17, 2006 by AllenLowe

[trane_fanatic]

Thank you all! I appreciate the suggestions. The paper itself is 6-8 pg. for a history class I'm taking and almost done, so nothing too heavy.

Edited December 17, 2006 by trane_fanatic

[ghost of miles]

There is a useful Harlem Renaissance Reader published by Viking/Penguin, and you might start with Houston A Baker, Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance. A very useful general reference work is the Oxford Companion to African American Literature.

Second these, and I'd also add Jervis Anderson's THIS WAS HARLEM (a broader history of the 1900-1950 period, but very useful), George Hutchinson's THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE IN BLACK & WHITE (he also has a new bio out on Renaissance writer Nella Larsen, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet), and David Levering Lewis' WHEN HARLEM WAS IN VOGUE.

[king ubu]

I greatly enjoy this one:

It contains tons of stuff, much of it just excerpts, but there's a lot of poetry, as well as a few complete works (including Toomer's classic "Cane" - this is the book Andrew Hill based his first Palmetto disc on, btw).

There is a second edition now (I have the one pictured above), with some new stuff in it:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/titles/afam/nafam2/

And here's the list of complete works it contains:

11 complete longer works

Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America (new)

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

James Weldon Johnson, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

Nella Larsen, Quicksand (new)

Richard Wright, The Man Who Lived Underground

Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

Amiri Baraka, Dutchman

Ed Bullins, Goin’a Buffalo: A Tragifantasy

Adrienne Kennedy, A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White

August Wilson, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (new)

Obviously they deleted from this new edition:

W.E.B. Du Bois, The Soul of Black Folk

Jean Toomer, Cane

Melvin B. Tolson, Libretto for the Republic of Liberia

Toni Morrison, Sula

August Wilson, Fences

(the first edition had 13 complete works, thus - also containing the ones from the first list not marked as new)

This is a great starting point, and with 2600+ pages you won't exhaust it that soon... the chapter on the Harlem Renaissance is almost 400 pages.

Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston would be two other great authors to read.

And then there's Carl van Vechten's weird novel.... hard to find that one, it seems (or at least I was unable to find it back when I looked for it, but that was roughly 10 years ago).

And go for some of Hughes' Jesse B. Simple columns, they're a great and very enjoyable read!

[AllenLowe]

short paper, so he may not want all this - but I would concur - especially the James Weldon Johnson autobiography; there are actually 2 novels that Van Vechten wrote - though somewhat maligned, he's a faxcinating and important guy. Also, Hurston, and I love Langston Hughes; also, if you can find anything, the poet Sterling Brown.

[king ubu]

I once did something on "Nigger Heaven" (sorry for that title... wasn't nearly as loaded back then, but still... he meant good, for sure). Quite a fascinating character, that guy! What's the other novel? I remember this one was long OOP back when I would have needed it, had to get it from some library...

[AllenLowe]

the only other one I have is Parties - but he actually wrote a few more -