Help me make a reading list of classic African-American literature

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I just read James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain and it blew me away. I'd like to read more serious literature about the black experience in america. What would a good reading list look like?

equinox, Thursday, 26 August 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Obvious but great ones: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, Native Son by Richard Wright.

n.a. (Nick A.), Thursday, 26 August 2004 19:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Leeeter van den Hoogenband (Leee), Thursday, 26 August 2004 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Try these out

A Raisin in the Sun--Lorraine Hansberry
The Sport of the Gods--Paul Laurence Dunbar
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Souls of Black Folk--WEB Du Bois
Cane--Jean Toomer
Song of Solomon--Toni Morrison
The Color Purple--Alice Walker
Mumbo Jumbo--Ishmael Reed
Tales of Neveryone--Samuel R. Delaney
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings--Maya Angelou

Those should get you started.

henry house, Friday, 27 August 2004 01:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Toni Morrison Beloved

misshajim (strand), Friday, 27 August 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Toni Morrisson "Paradise". Incredible.

jed_ (jed), Friday, 27 August 2004 11:53 (twenty-one years ago)

passing - nella larsen
the bluest eye - toni morrison

lauren (laurenp), Friday, 27 August 2004 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Iceberg Slim's Trick Baby

Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 31 August 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

There's a documentary on Iceberg Slim playing here in the next few weeks. I watched Trick Baby last night (found a sale DVD a while ago) and liked it--definitely less sensational than Shaft or Superfly. Answer to a possible trivia question: which film has both George Jefferson's brother (Mel Stewart) and The Love Boat's bartender (Ted Lange)? Stewart's really good. No period music, I don't think, at least none that I recognized.

clemenza, Monday, 12 August 2013 13:25 (twelve years ago)

Well, here are the texts for the African-American literature grad seminar (modern and postmodern) that I am taking in the fall:

Nella Larsen, Quicksand (1928) Penguin 2002
Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1934) Harper 2006
Langston Hughes, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz (1961) Knopf 2009
Amiri Baraka Transbluesency (poems 1961-1995) Marsilio 1995
Ishmael Reed, Mumbo Jumbo (1972) Scribner 1996
Toni Morrison, Jazz (1992) Vintage 2004
Paulo Lins, City of God (1997) Grove Press 2006
NourbeSe Philip, Zong! (2008) Wesleyan 2011

the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Monday, 12 August 2013 17:41 (twelve years ago)

oh dear

i better not get any (thomp), Monday, 12 August 2013 19:47 (twelve years ago)

lol

I tweeted too much and I am in jail. (crüt), Monday, 12 August 2013 19:48 (twelve years ago)

mumbo jumbo rules fuiud

Charlie Slothrop (wins), Monday, 12 August 2013 19:49 (twelve years ago)

although I prefer louisiana red (despite sexism)

Charlie Slothrop (wins), Monday, 12 August 2013 19:50 (twelve years ago)

I'd also show PBS' titanic 1987 mini-series "Eyes on the Prize," finally out on DVD.

You know what's good for context? Charles Dickens' American Notes. Excellent insights into antebellum America by a visitor.

first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 August 2013 19:59 (twelve years ago)

Leon Forrest, Divine Days
Albert Murray, Train Whistle Guitar
Darryl Pinckney, High Cotton

alimosina, Monday, 12 August 2013 21:52 (twelve years ago)

John Williams, Click Song _or_ The Man Who Cried I Am _or_ Captain Blackman
George Schuyler, Black No More _or_ Black Empire
William Attaway, Blood on the Forge
Frank London Brown, Trumbull Park
Willard Motley, Knock on Any Door
Richard Wright, The Outsider
Chester Himes, If He Hollers Let Him Go

stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 12 August 2013 22:05 (twelve years ago)

Sam Greenlee, The Spook Who Sat By the Door

stefon taylor swiftboat (s.clover), Monday, 12 August 2013 22:07 (twelve years ago)

It seems to me good to reach back to some of the slave autobiographies, too. Such as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. This lays the foundation for all the rest. There's a good listing on Wikipedia.

Aimless, Wednesday, 14 August 2013 04:20 (twelve years ago)

frederick douglass actually wrote three autobiographies! ta-nehisi coates says the last one is the best.

the autobiography of malcolm x obv.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 19:21 (twelve years ago)

also james baldwin's the fire next time, which remains one of the best things i've ever read.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 19:21 (twelve years ago)

Wallace Thurman, Infants of the Spring

"Dave Barlow" is the name Lou uses on sabermetrics baseball sites (s.clover), Wednesday, 14 August 2013 19:44 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

any recent discoveries?

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Monday, 15 January 2018 17:07 (seven years ago)

This in-depth intro to the works and life of William Kelly is remarkable---anybody here read him?? Might want to skim the intro, how the author went bookhunting etc., but it's okay for what it is.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/29/the-lost-giant-of-american-literature

dow, Tuesday, 23 January 2018 03:25 (seven years ago)


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