EDITOR'S NOTE Gwendolyn Brooks

What shall I give my children? who are poor, Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land, Who are my sweetest lepers, who demand No velvet and no velvety velour... —Annie Allen

In Annie Allen as in her other poetry over the last sixty years, Gwendolyn Brooks offers powerful insights into the human experience. In this issue of Humanities we look at the life and work of Brooks, who has been chosen as the 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities. She is the twenty-third recipient of the honor, which is the highest Gwendolyn Brooks, 1994 Jefferson Lecturer in award the federal government bestows for distinguished achievement the Humanities. — © 1994 by Jill Krementz in the humanities. Brooks calls Chicago her home. The South Side, where she grew up and still lives, has become her poetic world as well. Vivid characters have come to inhabit it: Satin-Legs Smith in "wonder-suits in yellow Humanities and in wine,/ sarcastic green and zebra-striped cobalt." Gas Cady, "the A bimonthly review published by the man who robbed J. Harrison's grave of mums/ and left the peony bush National Endowment for the Humanities. only because it was too big (said Mama)..." Mary, the gang girl, Chairman: Sheldon Hackney "a rose in a whiskey glass." The sixtyish sisters of the Mecca, Director of Communications Policy: "the twins with the floured faces, who dress in long stiff blackness,/who Gary L. Krull exit stiffly together and enter together/ stiffly,/ muffle their Mahler, finish their tea..." Brooks gives "a view of life," writes Blyden Jackson in Black Poetry in Editor: Mary Lou Beatty Assistant Editors: Constance Burr America, "in which one may see a microscopic portion of the universe Susan Q. Jaffe intensely and yet, through that microscopic portion see all truth for the Ellen Marsh human condition wherever it is." Writer-Editor: Amy Lifson The first collection of her poems, A Street in Bronzeville, appeared in Editorial Assistants: Nicole Ashby 1945, followed by Annie Allen, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. More Steven Snodgrass books of poetry appeared: The Bean Eaters, In the Mecca, Riot, Family Pictures, Beckonings, To Disembark, Black Love, The Near-Johannesburg Boy, Editorial Board: Marjorie Berlincourt, Winnie, Children Coming Home among them, as well as a novel, Maud George F. Farr, Jr., Guinevere Griest, Martha, and an autobiography, Report from Part One. Marsha Semmel, James Herbert, Along with writing poetry, Brooks has been a teacher of poetry, and Carole Watson as Poet Laureate of Illinois for the last twenty-five years, has paid for Marketing Director: Joy Evans prizes out of her own pocket to encourage promising talent. She has more than seventy honorary degrees, and is currently Distinguished Design: Crabtree & Jemison, Inc. Professor of English at Chicago State University, where a chair and cultural center have been named in her honor. The opinions expressed in Humanities are those Her concern for the rising generation of poets carries echoes of Brooks's of the authors and do not necessarily reflect Endowment policy. Material appearing in this own childhood. Her first four poems were published in the Hyde Parker publication, except for that already copyrighted, when she was just eleven; she recalls in her autobiography her mother's may be freely reproduced. Please notify the belief in her work, and being taken to church meetings where she met editor in advance so that appropriate credit can be given. Humanities (ISSN 0018-7526) is pub­ two of the greats of the Harlem Renaissance, James Weldon Johnson and, lished bimonthly by the National Endowment later, Langston Hughes. From Johnson the young Brooks got advice on for the Humanities, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, how to develop a critical sense by reading the modernists—T.S. Eliot and N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. Telephone: 202/606-8435; fax: 202/606-8240. Ezra Pound and e.e. cummings. From Langston Hughes came encour­ agement and something deeper—an example. Second-class postage paid at Washington, D.C., "Mightily did he use the street," Brooks was to write years later. "He and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to United States found its multiple heart, its tastes, smells, alarms, formulas, flowers, Government Printing Office, Superintendent of garbage and convulsions. He brought them all to his table-top. He Documents, Washington, D.C. 20402. New crushed them to a writing-paste. He himself became the pen." subscriptions and renewals: U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, The words were ones that could describe Brooks herself. P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. Annual subscription rate: $13.00 domestic, —Mary Lou Beatty $16.25 foreign. Two years: $26.00, $32.50. For subscription questions or problems, telephone: 202/512-2303; fax: 202/512-2233.

2 MAY/JUNE 1994 HUMANITIES THE MAGAZINE OF THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

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The 1994 Jefferson Lecture Other Features Departments

4 A Cc Jacob Lawrence: 17 Noteworthy Poet Gwendolyn Brooks and The Migration Series Endowment Chairman Sheldon By Constance Burr 35 Calendar Hackney discuss the art and Vivid images tell the story of power of poetry. black workers moving north. 44 In Focus 7 Gwendolyn Brooks: By Elizabeth Horne 18 Shaping the Future Gary Holthaus: Challenging An Appreciation By Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Popular Myths By D. H. Melhem Richard Newman A humane vision, a heroic voice. A new research guide to African-American history 1 The Humanities Guide 8 Beari and culture. 45 Centers and International By Rita Dove 21 "Pleading Our Own Cause" By precept and example, Brooks Research Organizations inspires generations of artists. By Janis Johnson By Ken Kolson Periodicals in a Wisconsin 10 Excerpts library chronicle African- American life. 46 Annual List of NEH- Supported Books and 12 Taking Gwendolyn Brooks Rediscovering the Humanities Museum Catalogues Back to Her Neighborhood in Ukraine By Matthew Kiell 54 Deadlines By Martha Bohachevsky Chomiak Teachers at Dunbar Vocational An American history professor High School explore the utility describes the changing academic of poetry. climate in Kiev.

24 Black Woman in Russia By Gwendolyn Brooks Impressions at an international writers' conference.

HUMANITIES 3 A Conversation with GWENDOLYN BROOKS

—Courtesy of The Contemporary Forum

4 MAY/JUNE 1994 Sheldon Hackney: You are quoted as arm to lean on is implicit. Implicit: do having said that being both an Ameri­ not make plans to do any leaning. can and a black person, you felt you Remember for example, Beirut, had the riches of two cultures as a remember Bosnia. It is not so easy for writer, that that was a great advan­ an American to abstain from 'being an tage. This is really taking W. E. B. American.' However roots-proud you Du Bois's comment about the two- as a Black may be, and my roots are in ness of American blacks, and turning the sweet earth of Africa; when asked it to advantage in some way. Do you 'what are you' in Dublin, Devon, Lon­ feel that it has been an advantage to be don, Israel, Iran, Ghana, in Moscow or black in America as a writer? Madrid, it is expedient and 'natural' to reply, twingelessly, 'American.' It is Gwendolyn Brooks: I'm won­ the only answer that will interest the dering where I said that, but I questioner. The questioner is impa­ believe I can still endorse it. tient. The questioner is ready for the It's not perhaps something that Definer behind you. The questioner I would have elected if I had has small time, and no time for your a choice. efforts at self-clarification." Don't you think that you can understand my saying that it Hackney: I have had not the same would have been right, perhaps, experience, but I have had a similar with a capital R, to have been experience of never having felt more hen NEH Chairman Sheldon Hackney spoke born in Africa and stayed in American than when abroad. Africa. I feel right about saying oks: Yes, yes. It's interesting. that to you. I'd like to quote from a couple of paragraphs Hackney: I would guess from what with Gwendolyn Brooks, the 1994 Jefferson that I have here that I've titled you say that you would endorse the "On Being An American." positive aspects of America, that is the ideal of America, but also caution Hackney: Good. Lecturer in the Humanities, the conversation Americans not to neglect their his­ >oks: "In America you feel a tory. The history is there. It is what little or a lot disoriented so far as has happened.... 'being an American' goes. In the oks: Positive and negative. turned to "the delicious agony" of writing last few decades many Ameri­ cans have learned an easy con­ Hackney: Positive and negative, yes. tempt for America; and true, a Is that an authentic stance for a writer country that for so long to take? poetry. Brooks is the author of nineteen vol­ endorsed slavery, endorsed oks: Well, I can't speak for other lynching, endorsed official seg­ writers, I just said what I feel. Other regation, endorsed the Vietnam writers are saying all kinds of things 'action,' and could be capable of umes of poetry, among them ANNIE ALLEN, these days. judging political conspiracy acceptable, is not to be blue­ Hackney: You're exactly right. Let me ribboned across the board. But go back into some of your biography. which won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. traveling to other countries You won the Pulitzer Prize at the age helps you italicize American of thirty-two in 1950 for Annie Allen. A positives. Once you get out of very young age, a remarkable event; the country, whatever your the first black poet to win the Pulitzer woes, your wobblinesses, your Prize. Did that change your life? Or confusion, your fury, you find your poetry? that you are operationally an oks It made it possible for me to American. I myself am forced to real­ teach. I don't have a bachelor's degree. ize that I am claimed by no other I have about seventy honorary country. My kind is claimed by this degrees, but I always "blush" because country, albeit reluctantly. Further­ I haven't Toiled In The Night for my more, traveling teaches you that honorary degrees. Having a Pulitzer cruelty and supersedence are every­ made it possible for me to teach on where. Although it is not true that college campuses. I've enjoyed being calling myself an American will able to teach. I'm teaching now at instantly protect me from harm or Chicago State University. detention anywhere in the world— when I was a little girl I thought this Hackney: And there is a Gwendolyn was true— still, that concept of a large Brooks Center there, is there not?

HUMANITIES Brooks: Oh yes, and I hope you'll get Hackney: No, no, I think that's which I have now in my bedroom, for to see it sometime. It's really nice. It's wonderful. a wedding present. And there's lots of inspiring. It has an exciting future. poetry in that set, as you know. Brooks: In 1936 it was called But to get back to your question, natu­ Woodrow Wilson lunior College. Now Hackney: Indeed. rally, when you get a Pulitzer—and I it is Kennedy-King. found out from a member of the fam­ Brooks: I read English poetry, Ameri­ ily that you are supposed to pro­ Hackney: But you had parents who can poetry, lots of essays. One of my nounce it PULL-itzer (after all these were both interested in literature, is favorites was Emerson. I got a lot of decades of saying PEW-litzer)—well, I that right? value out of essays like "Com­ pensation" and "Self-Reliance." was going to say, your name Brooks: Yes, we had lots of books in the becomes, in my case, Gwendolyn house, and my mother said that at the Hackney: Those good nineteenth- PULL-itzer Brooks. (Laughter.) And age of seven, I brought her a page of century virtues that are all there. there are nice things about that. But in rhymes, which she praised heartily. Would you recommend that sort of the late sixties the Black New Risers Both my parents were supportive of steeping in the literary tradition for a did not consider such distinctions as my efforts as a writer, and of my current course? glories to be proud of. brother's efforts as a painter. Brooks. I tell young writers today, of whom I see such a lot, that they should read everything. And I like to add to my adventures with the Harvard Classics, a little book called Caroling Dusk. I found that in a library, the Forrestville Public Library a block and a half away from my home. And there I learned about the work of Langston Hughes and Sterling Brown.

Hackney: And Dunbar.

Brooks And the two Cotters, Joseph Gwendolyn Brooks in 1950, the Cotter Senior and Junior. Countee Cullen. Claude McKay. year she won the Pulitzer Prize. Hackney: Yes.

Brooks And I was fascinated to find out that not only Paul Dunbar, whose work my father recited to my brother and myself, but all these other Black people were writing poetry, and publishing it. Hackney: Was that important to you when you were young?

-1994 Chicago Sun-Times. By permission Brooks: Absolutely. That was about the age of fifteen that I discovered Hackney: It did not do you a lot of Hackney: And that helped. these folks. In book form, I mean! good then. Brooks: Indeed it did. I was very Hackney: Were you already literary? Brooks: Among young blacks, those fortunate. rambunctious young blacks at that Brooks: Well, as I said, my mother Hackney: One of the things that all crit­ time, there was often the feeling that told me that I started writing at the ics remark on in your poetry is its there must be something wrong with age of seven. I do know that my first remarkable command of all of the tra­ you, if you had acquired one of these four poems to be printed were printed ditional literary forms, poetic forms. In gifts from the establishment. But that in the Hyde Parker. I sent them to the fact, you write quite complex verse editor. He didn't know I was eleven, was rather quickly conquered. forms, and use incredible meters and and just went ahead and published Because they decided—early on— rhyme schemes. Where did that all these four poems. to believe in me. come from? Did you work at that quite Hackney: That's wonderful. Hackney: You mentioned your lack of consciously when you were young? an earned bachelor's degree. What Brooks: Very encouraging! Brooks: We had the Harvard Classics, was your education in literature like? for instance, at our home. You'll be Hackney: One of the poems published Brooks: I was given an associate litera­ interested in this, I think. My father in your book Blacks, "The Chicago ture degree from a junior college. I had given the Harvard Classics to my Picasso," begins with a line that I know you're horrified to hear that. mother, complete with a bookcase would love you to explain—indeed, Continued on page 36

6 MAY/JUNE 1994 Gwendolyn Brooks:

The Wall of Respect at 43rd Street and Langley Avenue in Chicago, 196 7. Painted by artist members of the Organization of Black American Culture, the W all depicted African Americans who were accomplished in BY D. H. MELHEM various fields. The light area at bottom right featured writers, N 1968, Gwendolyn Brooks was already a poet Gwendolyn Brooks among them. with a national reputation. She was the new Poet Laureate of Illinois, succeeding the late Carl Sand­ burg. She had won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950 for Annie Allen, would soon be nominated for a National Book Award in 1969 for In the Mecca, and, at age fifty-one, could look ahead to a com­ fortable niche on her publisher’s list. Instead, she turned to Dudley Randall’s nascent Broadside Press, started her own magazine, The Black Position, and embarked on a journey of commitment that continues to this day.

HUMANITIES 7 I t is helpful to place these facts in a historical context, Sixteen months after her own birth, her brother I to recall that Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Raymond was born. the year that also saw the murder of Robert F. Kennedy, Brooks showed early signs of literary prodigy, and she that it was a rebellious decade of riots and Vietnam War grew up in an atmosphere where she was encouraged and protests that intensified the appreciated. The child wrote in clamorous mounting of the notebooks, rhyming from the Civil Rights movement. age of seven and casting her Brooks's biographer, the late thoughts into didactic and George E. Kent, writes: Gwendolyn Brooks shares soaring verse about nature, "Gwendolyn Brooks shares love, death, and the sky. Like with Langston Hughes the with Langston Hughes the Maud Martha, heroine of her achievement of being respon­ novel, she would sit on the sive to turbulent changes in back steps of her house and the black community's vision achievement of being responsive dream, searching the clouds, of itself and to the changing receiving her rhymes. Her forms of its vibrations during to turbulent changes in the mother told her, "You are decades of rapid change." going to be the lady Paul What springs replenish the black community’s vision__ Laurence Dunbar." vigor of her integrity? Reared in a black neighbor­ The sources begin in a nur­ hood from the age of four, turing home environment. "semi-poor," as she describes Gwendolyn Brooks, who the family circumstances, by was to become the consum­ eleven the precocious writer mate Chicagoan, was born in had four poems published Topeka, Kansas, at the house of her maternal grandpar­ locally in the Hyde Parker; by thirteen she was published in ents. She entered the world on June 7, 1917, the first American Childhood; by sixteen she had become a weekly child of "Duty-Loving" Keziah Wims Brooks, a fifth- contributor to the Chicago Defender column "Lights and grade teacher in Topeka, who played the piano and Shadows," where seventy-five of her poems were printed wrote music, and David Anderson Brooks, son of a run­ within two years. away slave, a janitor with "rich Artistic Abilities" who Brooks's emphasis on what she calls "Familyhood" for had spent a year at Fisk University in Nashville. After blacks extends her personal recognition to its social value. five weeks she and her mother returned to Chicago. "I had always felt that to be black was good," she writes in

BEARING WITNESS A Tribute from Poet Laureate of the United States Rita Dove

How does one begin to convey the influence TANDING IN FRONT of this the poems of Gwendolyn Brooks leapt off Gwendolyn Brooks has had on generations— literary congregation as a grown the pages of the book in my hands and not only writers, but people from all walks of woman, a woman who has entered struck me like a thunderbolt. These were life? How can one describe the fiercely her forties, I feel very strange thinking words that spoke straight from the turbu­ personal connection her poems make, how that when Gwendolyn Brooks was lent center of life— words that nourished chronicle her enormous impact on recent awarded the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Annie like meat, not frosting. Yes, I was struck literary, social, and political history? Allen, her second collection of poems, I by these poems, poems with muscle and There is a tradition in the black church: was not even, as people used to say then, sinew, poems that weren’t afraid to take we call it Testifying. It is the brave and hum­ “ a twinkle in my daddy’s eye.” I was born the language and revamp it, tw ist it and bling act of standing up among one’s family, two years after Gwendolyn Brooks, as energize it so that it shimmied and dashed friends, and neighbors to bear one’s soul, the first black writer ever, had received and lingered. and to bear witness by acknowledging those this highest honor in American letters. From that summer on I read everything who have sustained and nurtured the testi­ And it wasn’t until seventeen years later, by Gwendolyn Brooks that I could get my fier along the way. when as a gawky adolescent I spent the hands on: First I went back to her early Here, then, is my testimonial honoring whole of a muggy midwestern summer books, A Street in Bronzeville ( 1945) and Gwendolyn Brooks: combing the local library shelves for the Pulitzer volume Annie Allen; then there something that might speak to me— that was Selected Poems, which came out in

8 MAY/JUNE 1994 her autobiography, Report from Part One (1972). Her work and of her childbearing; her body had performed as it was indicates an indomitable ego strength and a dedication "supposed to perform." whose roots are fed, as Kent points out, by a "religious con­ Early publishing also increased the confidence of the sciousness, from which dogma has been ground away." young poet. At first she seemed, according to Elizabeth Brooks herself says, "My reli­ Lawrence, her longtime editor gion is... PEOPLE. LIVING," at Harper Brothers (now and she has often remarked, HarperCollins), suited to "M y religion is kindness." addressing smaller audiences; Church, nevertheless, pro­ My religion is... the impression soon van­ vided a cultural nexus. The ished. The warm critical black heritage of music was PEOPLE. LIVING,” reception of A Street in maintained by her father, who Bronzeville (1945), her first often sang, and by her pianist book, and careful supervision mother. Mrs. Brooks, who and she has often of her publishing career by taught Sunday school, encour­ her editor helped to sustain aged her daughter to write remarked, “ My her growth as a public figure. plays for her pupils; perform­ Despite advantages of educa­ ers included the young writer. religion is kindness. tion and ability, Brooks lived Church was the repository of the black experience in the black oratory and the spirituals United States. While fostering that W. E. B. Du Bois in The rare encouragement by a few Gift o f Black Folk called "sor­ teachers, school brought an row songs." It was the place awakening to the discrimina­ where the poet's mother took tory nature of the intra- and her to meet James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes. interracial scene. As a dark-skinned child, and then as a The latter became an inspiration and, later, a friend. woman, Brooks learned first-hand the valuing of whiteness On September 17,1939, Brooks was married to Henry L. and lightness, transferred from the dominant culture to Blakely II, a poet and writer whom she had met in a youth prejudices among blacks themselves. The awareness figures group sponsored by the National Association for the in her earlier work and in her partly autobiographical novel, Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). On October 10, Maud Martha. Upon graduation from Wilson Junior College 1940, her son Henry Ir. was born. On September 8,1951, (now Kennedy-King), at first the only work the poet could daughter Nora was born. Brooks was proud of her children find was that of a domestic. Later, she worked as writer and Continued on page 39

1963, followed by In the Mecca: Poems in But Gwendolyn Brooks not only spoke Melting Pot effectively translated into: Dis­ 1968 and Riot published in 1969, the same loud and clearly through her books; she appear into the Mainstream or Else, I know year she was selected to succeed Carl made herself heard on numerous disc that Gwendolyn Brooks was among the Sandburg as Poet Laureate of the State of recordings, in trenchant interviews and few who gave me the courage to insist on Illinois, a position she still holds. And through books about her life and creative my own story. And though I never most recently I admired her The Near- work. Honors for her outstanding dreamed of following in her footsteps as Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems ( 1986) achievements include, besides the Pulitzer far as the Pulitzer Prize, her shining exam­ and Blacks, collected poems, published by Prize and poet laureate position, grants ple opened up new possibilities for me Third W o rld Press in 1987. and awards from the likes of the Guggen­ and generations of younger artists. Gwendolyn Brooks also ventured suc­ heim Foundation and the National Insti­ Thank you, Gwendolyn, for your invalu­ cessfully into prose. Maud Martha, her tute of A rts and Letters. able contributions to changing the face of moving novel, came out in 1953. The As someone who, as a black child, was our world. □ autobiographical remembrances and educated in a literary tradition that reflections Report from Part One and The seemed to have little use fo r my existence — Poet Laureate of the United States World of Gwendolyn Brooks were both pub­ except as a caricature or in servitude and Rita Dove introducing Gwendolyn Brooks at lished in 1972, and in 1980 Primer for who, as a young person, came of age in a Piedmont, Virginia, Community College in Blacks appeared. society where the discourse of the February of 1993.

HUMANITIES Excerpts from the

What a pity what a pity. No love for one so loving. The little Lincoln loved Everybody. Ants. The changing caterpillar. His much-missing mother. His kindergarten teacher. His kindergarten teacher—whose concern for him was composed of one part sympathy and two parts repulsion. The others ran up with their little drawings. He ran up with his. She tried to be as pleasant with him as The Life of Lincoln W est with others, but it was difficult. For she was all pretty! all daintiness, Ugliest little boy all tiny vanilla, with blue eyes and fluffy that everyone ever saw. sun-hair. One afternoon she That is what everyone said. saw him in the hall looking bleak against the wall. It was strange because the Even to his mother it was apparent— bell had long since rung and no other when the blue-aproned nurse came into the child was in sight. Pity flooded her. northeast end of the maternity ward She buttoned her gloves and suggested bearing his squeals and plump bottom cheerfully that she walk him home. She looped up in a scant receiving blanket, started out bravely, holding him by the bending, to pass the bundle carefully hand. But she had not walked far before into the waiting mother-hands—that this she regretted it. The little monkey. was no cute little ugliness, no sly baby waywardness Must everyone look? And clutching her that was going to inch away hand like that.... Literally pinching as would baby fat, baby curl, and i t . . . . baby spot-rash. The pendulous lip, the branching ears, the eyes so wide and wild, At seven, the little Lincoln loved the vague unvibrant brown of the skin, the brother and sister who and, most disturbing, the great head. moved next door. Handsome. Well- These components of That Look bespoke dressed. Charitable, often, to him. They the sure fibre. The deep grain. enjoyed him because he was resourceful, made up His father could not bear the sight of him. games, told stories. But when His mother high-piled her pretty dyed hair and their More Acceptable friends came they turned put him among her hairpins and sweethearts, their handsome backs on him. He dance slippers, torn paper roses. hated himself for his feeling He was not less than these, of well-being when with them despite— he was not more. Everything. As the little Lincoln grew, He spent much time looking at himself uglily upward and out, he began in mirrors. What could be done? to understand that something was But there was no wrong. His little ways of trying shrinking his head. There was no to please his father, the bringing binding his ears. of matches, the jumping aside at warning sound of oh-so-large and "Don't touch me!" cried the little fairy-like being in the playground. rushing stride, the smile that gave and gave and gave—Unsuccessful! Her name was Nerissa. The many children were playing tag, but when Even Christmases and Easters were spoiled. he caught her, she recoiled, jerked free He would be sitting at the and ran. It was like all the family feasting table, really rainbow that ever was, going off delighting in the displays of mashed potatoes forever, all, all the sparklings in and the rich golden the sunset west. fat-crust of the ham or the festive fowl, when he would look up and find One day, while he was yet seven, somebody feeling indignant about him. a thing happened. In the down-town movies

10 MAY/JUNE 1994 Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks

with his mother a white man in the seat beside him whispered loudly to a companion, and pointed at the little Line. "THERE! That's the kind I've been wanting to show you! One of the best examples of the specie. Not like those diluted Negroes you see so much of on the streets these days, but the real thing. Black, ugly, and odd. You can see the savagery. The blunt blankness. That is the real thing."

His mother— her hair had never looked so red around the dark brown velvet of her face— jumped up, shrieked "Go to—" She did not finish. She yanked to his feet the little Lincoln, who was sitting there a song in the front yard staring in fascination at his assessor. At the author of his I've stayed in the front yard all my life. new idea. I want a peek at the back Where it's rough and untended and hungry weed grows. All the way home he was happy. Of course, A girl gets sick of a rose. he had not liked the word "ugly." I want to go in the back yard now But, after all, should he not And maybe down the alley, be used to that by now? What had To where the charity children play. struck him, among words and meanings I want a good time today. he could little understand, was the phrase They do some wonderful things. "the real thing." They have some wonderful fun. He didn't know quite why, My mother sneers, but I say it's fine but he liked that. How they don't have to go in at quarter to nine. He liked that very much. My mother, she tells me that Johnnie Mae When he was hurt, too much Will grow up to be a bad woman. stared at— That George'll be taken to Jail soon or late too much (On account of last winter he sold our back gate.) left alone—he But I say it's fine. Honest, I do. thought about that. He told himself And I'd like to be a bad woman, too, "After all, I'm And wear the brave stockings of night-black lace the real thing." And strut down the streets with paint on my face. It comforted him. A Street in Bronzeville To Disembark

The Blackstone Rangers I. As Seen By Disciplines There they are. Thirty at the corner. Black, raw, ready. Sores in the city that do not want to heal.

In the Mecca

Copyright © 1945,1949,1953, I960,1963,1969,1970,1971,1975,1981, 1987 by Gwendolyn Brooks Blakely. Reprinted by permission. HUMANITIES 11 NLIKE many not surprising. Brooks is, naturally, a and owner/founder of the Third contemporary popular subject of discussion in Eng­ World Press, a nexus among American lish classes today, and it appealed as Chicago's black literati. Alexander poets, Gwen­ well to about a dozen teachers and teaches at the University of Chicago dolyn Brooks counselors from the school and sev­ and is a poet following in the footsteps is accessible to eral other schools, who met between of Gwendolyn Brooks. readers, liter- lanuary and June to discuss the life To carry the focus beyond the acad­ arily and literally. "I'm always a little and works of poet Gwendolyn Brooks. emic, a number of guests visited the puzzled when people talk about this At a school in Chicago's inner city, group. One of Brooks's closest long­ grand business," Ebony magazine such as Dunbar, the relevance of time friends, educator Margaret Bur­ quoted her as saying in 1987 in reac­ Brooks and her work is especially roughs, wrote a letter to the teachers. tion to being labeled the grande easy to see. Her verses resonate. For Chicago poet Mari Evans visited the dame of American letters. "There is example, the street gang highlighted group, as did Brooks's daughter, really nothing grand about me. I in the 1968 poem "The Blackstone Nora Blakely, who directs the Choco­ meant there's just no pretense or Rangers" has changed its name and late Chips Theater Company on phoniness or formality at all. I am a many of these members are in jail. Chicago's South Side. And, most Taking Gwendolyn Brooks

very ordinary person.... I don't want But it remains notorious, and many important, Brooks herself joined the to be obscure." other gangs saturate the neighbor­ group at two meetings. Brooks has been in the poetic lime­ hoods as well. This was an intimate, extended light since 1950, when she received the It is easy for Dunbar students and conference in a location directly at the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her sec­ teachers to see their environment core of the Brooks's life and poetry. ond volume of poems, Annie Allen. In reflected in the preface poem, "After She has shared her poetry and per­ the 1960s, she was at the center of a School," in Brooks's 1991 collection spective with a nation, even the coterie of black poets, activists, and Children Coming Home: world; this was Gwendolyn Brooks other intellectuals that included hus­ coming home. Dunbar is situated at band Henry Blakely, Haki Madhubuti, Not all of the children the edge of the neighborhood where Oscar Brown, Jr., Angela Jackson, Car­ come home to cookies and cocoa. Brooks grew up and just a few miles olyn Rodgers, Lerone Bennett, Jr., and Some come to crack cocaine. north of where she still lives. Two Margaret Burroughs. Some come to be used in various miles south of the high school runs In 1985, the national spotlight shone manners. 47th Street, the main street of what on her as a high-profile consultant to One will be shot on his way home to Brooks called "Bronzeville" in her the Library of Congress. She has warmth, wit and wisdom. first book of poetry. received dozens of honorary degrees. She has even met with Presidents. One teacher mutters "My God, they Down through Forty-seventh Street: In her home state, she had been the are gone." Underneath the L, official lyric voice of the state of Illi­ One is ripe to report Ten People to And—Northwest Corner, Prairie, nois, as its poet laureate for more than the Principal. That he loved so well. a quarter of a century, succeeding Carl One muses "How have I served or Sandberg. She has turned this mostly disturbed them today?".... This was the route followed by the ceremonial position—for instance, she casket of a "plain black boy" in is noted for her poem at the 1983 inau­ A POET IN HER ELEMENT "Of De Witt Williams on His Way to guration of Harold Washington, The Dunbar course was not merely a Lincoln Cemetery." Chicago's first black mayor—into a bookish study. Professors Haki Mad­ This study of Gwendolyn Brooks was vehicle for public readings and work­ hubuti and Elizabeth Alexander led a prism through which the participants shops and for fostering poetry in the Dunbar group through the ten could analyze and reevaluate their schools, colleges, universities, and three-hour sessions. Madhubuti, a whole lives. The poetry is about their even prisons. 1960 Dunbar graduate and one of history and attitudes, their neighbors So an NEH Masterworks Project Brooks's best known proteges, is the and neighborhood, and their students such as the one at Paul Laurence Dun­ director of the Gwendolyn Brooks and about them. Few people have the bar Vocational High School last year is Center at Chicago State University opportunity as this group did to exam-

12 MAY/JUNE 1994 ine a voice of their own neighborhood with such talent and world renown. Moreover, appropriately, this semi­ nar was at the school named after the turn-of-the-century writer who is one of the luminaries in the African-Amer­ ican literary tradition.

THEIR LIVES IN POETRY The ten-session examination of Brooks was a catalyst for some of the older teachers in particular, many of them life-long Chicagoans. They were able to share their own personal per­ spectives on events and attitudes in Brooks's life and poetry that they had Back to Her Neighborhood BY MATTHEW KIELL

directly experienced, too, in the city and in their lives. Mary J. Adams, a vocational coun­ selor at Dunbar with thirty years of experience in teaching and counseling, English teacher Pamela York Francis was skeptical that a poetry class could in her classroom at have any direct benefit in her job. Dunbar Vocational "When I entered the Gwendolyn High School in Brooks class, I had an uneasy curiosity Chicago. Francis as to how a poetry class would sit conceived and coordinated the NEH with me," she says. "M y background Masterwork Project on educationally is in science and my Gwendolyn Brooks. career emphasis is now in counseling. —Photos by Matthew Kiell My knowledge and training, even in related fields to poetry, were limited and very many years ago. Yet I did feel something of an excitement as I anticipated studying about a noted black poet as Gwendolyn Brooks. Despite my excitement, however, I really wondered, 'Could I benefit from this particular class?"' "Ms. Brooks's poetry represents an expression of the varied aspects of life. Poetry is the rhyme of life. In her poetry I saw manifestations of love, fear, abuse, inflated and deflated egos, courage, current events, aspirations, defeats, sceneries, styles, death, etc. Life's occurrences were put in verse. Generally, no solutions were sought or reasons provided. Some of the poetry was lighter and happier, but the poems Continued on page 42

HUMANITIES Panel No. 18 of The Migration Series by Jacob Lawrence, 1940-41. "The migration gained in momentum" (Title and text revised by the artist, 1993.)

14 MAY/JUNE 1994 —Courtesy of Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. Panel No. 45, "The migrants arrived in Pittsburgh, one of the great industrial centers of the North." the of centers industrial great the of one Pittsburgh,in migrantsarrived "The 45, PanelNo. LAWRENCE: JACOB y B CONSTANCE burr

I Images of despair alternate with visions of hope and excite­ and hope of visions with alternate despair of Images Negro the f o Migration he and backbreaking work— and the promise of a better life. life. better a of promise the and work— discrimination, backbreaking and hardship, of scenes depicts twenty- was series the the Lawrence three, to when 1942 South in entieth-century rural Painted tw the North. from the urban Americans portray African of that exodus paintings sixty of The of the of Migration Pcue Essay Picture A Negro

sJcb arnesei chronicle epic Lawrence's Jacob is

et h atcpto o a of anticipation the ment— national tour which began at at began which tour national Negro a l a te apoc a smoke­ powerful see and approach city they as ily fam w ind up at the C hicago hicago C the at up ill w ind and w D.C. ashington, W a train platform as people life. a new people to as passage await platform train a on high piled baggage stacks; published in the November November the in published fall the in Society Historical in n llectio o C s illip h P the zine and exhibited in New New in exhibited and zine first was series The 1995. of 1942, 1942, 1941 issue of of issue 1941 o te is tme since e tim first the For has been reunited for a for reunited been has h Mirto the f o igration M The Fortune HUMANITIES maga­

16

-© Spike Mafford Photography, courtesy ofPrancine Seders Gallery, Seattle York that year. It created a sensation, as Lawrence became became Lawrence as sensation, a created It year. that York KnightLawrence. Gwendolyn and Lawrence Jacob journey. Showered with honors during his five-decade five-decade his during honors with Showered journey. n w. h uem fMdr r ad h Pilp Col­ Phillips the and Art Modern of Museum The the two. in in acclaimed be to Americans African first the of one but a great American them e," the saga of the American American the of saga the e," them American great a but eto ec prhsd hry anig, hc te con­ they which paintings, thirty purchased each lection divided was collection the 1942 In 1940s. the of world art prodigious talent emerged when government support for for support government when emerged talent prodigious own. to tinue was consolidating the drive for African-American cultural cultural African-American for drive the consolidating was career, he was the son of migrants, schooled in Harlem. His His Harlem. in schooled migrants, of son the was he career, Negro History, Literature, and Prints. He won several several won He Prints. and Literature, History, 135th the Negro at classes taking began he 1932 In recognition. (WPA) Administration Projects Work the through arts the Street Library, which housed the Schomburg Collection of of Collection Schomburg the housed which Library, Street that encouraged expression of African-American history. workshops African-American of art expression WPA at encouraged that studies his pursuing scholarships, a cmuiy Te is hl o te eis s eoe to devoted is series the of half first The community. can contemporary a ahntn D.C. Washington, Milwaukee Art Museum Art Milwaukee Collection Phillips Series Migration The Lawrence: "Jacob September 1993-January 1994 1993-January September April 19-June 12,1994 19-June April 20,1994 January 28-March Wisconsin Milwaukee, Portland Art Museum Art Portland Portland, Oregon Oregon Portland, MAY/JUNE 1994 MAY/JUNE Lawrence (b.1917) says that his subject is "not just ethnic, ethnic, just "not is subject his that says (b.1917) Lawrence He developed an independent voice and vision—that of of vision—that and voice independent an developed He griot, r trtle o te African-Ameri­ the of storyteller or The Saint Louis Art Museum Art Louis Saint The July 10-September 4,1994 10-September July Art BirminghamMuseumof The Museum of Modern Art Modern Museumof The St. Louis,Missouri Alabama Birmingham, September 30-November 27,1994 30-November September Jan. 12-April 11,1995 Jan.12-April New York, New York New York, New '1 Itinerary im ages of the South; the second h alf to the life that the that shows life Lawrence con­ the journey, the After to of North. alf excitement h the the reached veying second they when the found South; migrants the of ages im Americans. The series ends as it began, "And the migrants migrants the "And began, it as ends series The Americans. kept coming." kept African established more of race snobbery and the as slums, well urban as riots, camps, labor of conditions squalid work for both paintings and captions. Lawrence painted the the painted Lawrence captions. and paintings both for work heightened by a mastery of tempera technique. His narrative narrative His technique. tempera of mastery a by heightened figures, angular perspective, bold of use yel­ the and orange Through low. cadmium to moving black, and ivory, umber with burnt and color—starting by color once, at all cycle frame­ compact a providing hardboard, on images same-size and patterns of bright color, he achieved a distinctive style style distinctive a achieved he color, bright of patterns and migration quickened," states Panel No. 16. No. Panel states quickened," the migration lynching a "After tone. cautionary direct, a have captions included such program s as "A n Evening w ith Jacob Jacob ith w Evening Conversa­ n "A Lawrence—In Knight as s Gwendolyn and Lawrence program such included trict of C olum bia. W ith G ates, a leading scholar of of scholar leading a discussed wife his ates, and G artist the ith W history, bia. African-American olum C of trict Dis­ the of University the at Jr.," Gates, Louis Henry with tion the past, and the importance of community today. □ today. community of importance the and past, the understand to desire universal the 1930s, the in Harlem in life nte rn t suy arnews wre t Ptii Hills, Patricia to awarded was Lawrence study to grant Another Constance Burr is assistant editor assistant is Burr Constance The Phillips Collection received a $50,000 planning grant from grant planning $50,000 a received Collection Phillips The Approaches to the Art of Lawrence. ” of Jacob the to Art Approaches Humanities. the on Council D.C. Organiza­ Programs. f Public o Historical Division f the and o program Museums tions in Projects Humanities the h rcie $000flosi o uiest tahr rm the from teachers university for fellowship $30,000 a received who the by sponsored was Lawrence with conversation evening The iiin elwhp ad eias o eerh "Critical research to Seminars and Fellowships f o Division The numbered, sequenced narrative unfolds in small, small, in unfolds narrative sequenced numbered, The Supported by an Endowment planning grant, the exhibition exhibition the grant, planning Endowment an by Supported April 25-June 27,1995 25-June April Georgia Atlanta, High Museum of Art Museumof High July 15-September 9,1995 15-September July Chicago Historical Society Historical Chicago Museum Art Denver hcg, Illinois Chicago, Denver,Colorado September 22-November 26,1995 22-November September of Humanities of Humanities magazine.

Around the Nation From teleconferences to festivals, several events supported by state humanities councils are taking place this spring. NOTEWORTHY gia—The Summer Olympics BY AMY LIFSON are coming to Atlanta in 1996, and the arts and humanities will be there. The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) Cultural Olympiad is a multi-year festival of arts and cul­ ture that culminates in the Olympic Arts festival in 1996. The Georgia Humanities Council is administering for ACOG the Regional Designation Awards in the Humani­ ties, open to cultural organizations in twelve southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, r foput Louisiana, Mississippi, North Car­ olina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vir­ ginia and West Virginia. The awards grams will be broadcast on May 5 and community. Chief lustice of the Ohio are intended to recognize excellence 19. For more information contact the Supreme Court Thomas J. Moyer will and innovation in humanities pro­ Massachusetts Foundation for the give the keynote address at the first gramming throughout the South. Humanities, 413/536-1385. symposium on June 16 in Findlay, Applications should be received by Mississippi—Two centuries of Ohio. Four regional sessions will fol­ the Georgia Humanities Council Mississippi's rich written tradition low in September and October. (404/523-6220) by May 2. will be explored at the fifth Natchez Rhode Island- The newest school owa- The Iowa Humanities Board Literary Celebration, "Mississippi's drama/discussion from the Rhode (IHB) is sponsoring an electronic town Literary Heritage: Black and White Island Committee for the Humanities meeting for its Annual Program and Read All Over," lune 1 though 5. will be released in May. It is called Review on May 21. Participants at five The closing address will be given by Rhode Island Legacy and tells the story sites across the state will be able to Julia Wright, daughter of novelist about two Rhode Island soldiers in the share their ideas about future IHB Richard Wright, a Natchez native. Civil War—one a black resident and programming by using the Iowa The Mississippi Humanities Council, the other an Irish immigrant. The pre­ Communications Network—a new which has funded the conference since sentation will be piloted at students of fiber optic network. its beginning, will host the Southern Rhode Island public schools, and is the The five meeting sites are in John­ Regional Directors and Chairs Meeting sixth in the series of Legacy dramas. ston, Manchester, Fort Dodge, Cory- on the final Saturday of the celebration. South Dakota- More than ninety don, and West Burlington. Guest New Hampshire—The New Hamp­ papers on the history, literature, archae­ speakers include Bharati Mukherjee, shire Humanities Council celebrates its ology and anthropology of the Dakotas author of The Holder o f the World (1993), twentieth anniversary on May 6 with will be presented at the 26th Annual and film producer Mike Condon. For an "All-Star Night of Baseball with more information contact that IHB Dakota History Conference, June 2-4, at Ken Burns," featuring a sneak preview office at 319/335-4153. Augustana College in Sioux Falls. Guest Maryland—The history of emanci­ of clips from Burns's upcoming film speakers include author Frederick Man­ pation during the Civil War comes Baseball, a nineteen hour show to be fred, artist Arthur Amiotte, and scholar alive through the staging of letters and aired on PBS this fall. Bums is best Russell Stubbles. For more information documents from African Americans of known for his film The Civil War. contact the Center for Western Studies the period in "Free at Last: Images of On hand for the celebration will be at 605/336-4007. Emancipation," performed on lune 17, baseball figures including "Gentleman Virginia—The College of William 18, and 19 at the Columbia Festival of Jim" Lonborg, the 1967 Red Sox and Mary is hosting on May 17 and 18 the Arts, Howard County. The perfor­ Dream Team pitcher and Cy Young the national conference "Brown v. mances are followed by a discussion winner; Max Manning, an All-Star Board of Education after 40 Years." with historians and actors, and a pitcher with the Newark Eagles in the Participants include people who videotape of the production will be Negro Leagues; and Mary Pratt, a played central roles in the Brown cases made available to local schools. pitcher with the Kenosha Comets and and leaders of the Civil Rights Move­ Massachusetts—"Knowing Our Rockford Peaches in the All American ment: former Supreme Court Justice Place: Challenges to Citizenship in a Girls' Professional Baseball League. William Brennan, attorneys Oliver Hill Technological Age" is a satellite tele­ "The Courthouse Reconsid­ and Robert L. Carter, and NAACP conference designed to explore the ered: Symbol, Tool, Landmark" is a leader Vernon Jordan. For more infor­ relationships between science, tech­ statewide symposium that will exam­ mation about the conference in nology, and democracy in the making ine the significance of the county court­ Williamsburg, contact the Institute of of environmental policy. Two pro­ house and courthouse square to the Bill of Rights Law at 804/221-3810. □

HUMANITIES 17 18

MAY/JUNE 1994 MAY/JUNE SHAPING

-Whitney Museum of American Art, New York FUTURE Charles H. Alston. THE BY HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., AND RICHARD NEWMAN RICHARD AND JR., GATES, LOUIS HENRY BY Family. 1955 T HE STORY OF PEOPLE OF STORY HE of African descent in this country has has country this in descent African of however, new interest in the black black the in interest new however, bibliographies and bibliographic essays essays bibliographic and bibliographies this analyzing in engaged presently years, twenty-five past the Over exist. not did simply often culture and tory his­ their covering literature accurate and distorted, or ignored been often material and establishing a collection of of collection a establishing and material is specialists of group A disciplines. academic across articles and books of explosion an produced has experience History African-American to Guide Harvard culture. and history African-American comprehen­ single a constitute will that nature of American historical research research historical American of nature of literature the to guide research sive African-American will be rethought and redefined as a as redefined and rethought be will African-American of future the shape women whose work is at the forefront forefront the at is work whose women work. their of result very the believe they and studies, WillRange Across NewGuide versity; Darlene Clark Hine, Michigan Michigan Hine, Clark Darlene versity; University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley. California, of University Uni­ Harvard Higginbotham, Brooks The scholarship. African-American of Lawrence Dowler of Harvard's of Dowler Lawrence Univer­ Harvard Burkett, K. Randall Litwack, Leon and University; State Guide's sity, is an associate editor, as is as editor, associate an is sity, History and CultureandHistory Databaseand The scholars who are creating the the creating are who scholars The These specialists include men and and men include specialists These maintain they are helping to to helping are they maintain general editors are Evelyn Evelyn are editors general

1 -Hirshhom Museum, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Joseph H. Hirshhom. Photo by Uc by Hirshhom. Photo H. Joseph gift of Institution; -Hirshhom Smithsonian Museum,

Romare Bearden. The Prevalence of Ritual: Baptism. 1964

Widener Library. The project is and has profoundly influenced The Harvard Guide to African-Ameri­ housed at the W. E. B. Du Bois Insti­ research and researchers in American can History will consist of two sec­ tute for Afro-American Research, history ever since, the African-Ameri­ tions: bibliographic essays and Harvard University, the institutional can Guide has the modern advantages bibliographies. The essays are neces­ sponsor. Founded in 1975, the institute of developments in technology. The sary, in part, because some of the is an interdisciplinary research center new Guide will not only be published records of black history and culture in African-American studies. in an 800-page book by Harvard Uni­ are found in forms not always consid­ Drawing on a breadth of scholarship versity Press, but the data will also be ered by traditional researchers and in many fields, the editors and compil­ available in state-of-the-art electronic not always available in conventional ers are selecting and organizing the form, as well. handbooks or sources: music, oral his­ newest, best, and most relevant mater­ The decision to produce the Guide tory, folklore, and film, for example. ial in order to make available to stu­ as a book was made in order to reach In addition, essays will cover the dents at all levels a basic research tool the widest possible audience: school, more familiar and more widely uti­ that will provide access to the whole public, and small college libraries, in lized nonbook categories of manu­ spectrum of African-American history. addition to individuals, who may scripts, serials, and government The Guide will also show the extent of not have access to expensive and documents and records. black involvement in the larger realms rapidly changing technology. The There will be a special biblio­ of American history and American decision to produce the Guide as a graphic essay on the story of women studies, and offer these disciplines an database was made in order to be in the black experience. Information opportunity to reconsider their own able to update the bibliographies on women was not always included shape and content. easily, and also to explore new ways in older sources, and the Guide essay Based on the model of the Harvard of disseminating information, reflects the widespread and growing Guide to American History, which perhaps through existing library interest in the history and roles of appeared more than forty years ago network systems. women as areas of research interest.

HUMANITIES 19 Elsa Barkley Brown of the Univer­ need to be taken into account. With With a universe of materials at sity of Michigan, who is writing this the institutionalization of slavery, the hand, he selected from them for the essay, will examine past and present rise of free black communities, slave Guide citations for those published methodological trends, comment on resistance, and the poetry of Phillis writings that represent descriptive relevant works, and sketch out Wheatley, new elements appear that and analytical materials of intellec­ major issues. require the inclusion of studies and tual significance and of the highest Besides Brown, the authors of perspectives from sociology, litera­ value to the researcher. "To have bibliographic essays include Thomas ture, art, and religion in order to Eric Foner as a guide through the Cripps, Morgan State University; understand them. literature of Reconstruction is a James Danky, State Historical Society Documenting this story has raised student's dream," one of the other of Wisconsin; Deborah Newman many questions with which the edi­ editors commented. Ham, Library of Congress; Portia K. tors of the Guide are still wrestling: The new interest in black history, Maultsby, Indiana University; and what to include, where to place it, both popular and academic, has had Elinor DesVerney Sinnette, Moor- and in what format? Should nontra- one unexpected result. Several com­ land-Spingarn Research Center, ditional sources be integrated with mercial publishers and vendors have Howard University. traditional monographs? Uniformity recently released a number of The bibliographies themselves are and compatibility of entries is a con­ African-American reference books arranged chronologically, beginning stant problem. These issues are because there is now a considerable in 1440. They are set in time periods being resolved as satisfactorily as market for material. that are particularly appropriate for possible, and if some inconsistencies The original idea for a comprehen­ African-American history and that remain, it is expected they will be sive Guide to African-American History reflect the uniqueness of the African- overcome by the creation of a com­ came from the late Nathan I. Huggins, American experience within the plete and thorough index. chair of Afro-American studies at broader outline of American history. The editors realize that subject access Harvard and director of the W. E. B. This periodization may well call for a is as crucial a need in the Guide as Du Bois Institute. He met with a new look at how American history is chronological organization. That is, it group of scholars in 1988 who imme­ presently organized. is just as likely for a researcher to look diately shared his enthusiasm for the The bibliographers are Richard J. at, say, the black church across time concept and began to plan ways to M. Blackett, Indiana University; lines, as it is for a researcher to exam­ implement it. At Huggins's death in John H. Bracey, Jr., University of ine a particular period itself, the "New 1989, it was felt the project should Massachusetts at Amherst; Clay- Negro" era of 1915-1932, for example. continue, not only because of its borne Carson, Stanford University; To meet that need, a list of subjects intrinsic merit, but also as a tribute to Eric Foner, Columbia University; was agreed upon with each chronolog­ one who pioneered black studies, set Nancy Grant, Washington Univer­ ical bibliography subdivided into sub­ the highest intellectual standards, and sity; Joseph Miller, University of ject areas such as medicine and health, helped shape the field. Virginia; Gary B. Nash, University science and technology, the arts, and With an estimated total of well over of California, Los Angeles; architecture, so that specific topics and 10,000 entries, the Harvard Guide to Stephanie J. Shaw, Ohio State Uni­ themes can be traced through chrono­ African-American History will be large versity; Jeffrey Stewart, George logical sections. enough to encompass a broadly Mason University; John K. Thorn­ The great strength of the Guide is its defined discipline and small enough ton, Millersville University; Joe Trot­ selectivity, and the expertise of the to be practical and useable. It will ter, Carnegie-Mellon University; and contributors guarantees that entries bring order to a mass of material, will Peter Wood, Duke University. are being chosen by leading help solidify a rapidly expanding African-American history begins in researchers in the field. Even the field, and, perhaps most important, by Africa, with its own history and cul­ sophistication of the editors, however, revealing gaps in the story of African ture, and the momentous changes has not eliminated a lively and ongo­ Americans, will point to work that that began there with the earliest ing discussion: what are the criteria remains to be done. incursion of the Portuguese on the for inclusion? Each of the dozen West African coast. The first Guide chronological periods has room for Henry Louis Gates, Jr., project director of bibliography starts with this back­ only a thousand or so entries. The edi­ the Harvard Guide to African-Ameri­ ground and context, and goes on to tors are selecting those references they can History, is chair o f the Department of outline the history of slavery and the believe to be the most important for Afro-American Studies, and director of the slave trade and the rise of the New surveying and understanding the his­ W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-Amer­ World. It focuses on the development toriographical literature of each par­ ican Research at Harvard University. of plantation slavery and the gradual ticular time period. codification of laws in Virginia which A model bibliography was created transformed indentured servitude near the outset of the project by Eric Richard Newman, managing editor of the into permanent and perpetual slavery Foner of Columbia University. He Guide, is publications officer at the based on race and color. had recently completed his definitive Du Bois Institute. The interdisciplinary nature of study of the Reconstruction period African-American history becomes and had amassed for his own use in evident, then, at the very outset of this writing his book a comprehensive Harvard University received $98,740 chronology. Demography, law, and bibliography of the period immedi­ for the project from the Division of political science are all elements which ately following the Civil War. Research Programs.

20 MAY/JUNE 1994 PLEADING OUR OWN CAUSE’ —Courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture for Black in Research Center Schomburg of —Courtesy

Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association on parade in Harlem, 1920. African-American Danky, the project director, newspapers, such as the New York Amsterdam News, reported fully on Garvey's activities who is newspapers and peri­ odical librarian at the State Historical Society of Wis­ and give vent to what its consin. "It's impossible to director calls the "authentic underestimate the ferocity of Collecting African-American Jim Crow, of segregation.... voice" of African-American culture. The African-American African-American society Newspapers and Periodicals: was separate in life and sepa­ Newspapers and Periodicals A National Bibliography and rate in death. That prompted Union List will be the first BY JANIS JOHNSON comprehensive guide to the vast body of newspapers and periodicals by and about African-Americans. As a

scholarly and popular re­ N THE FRONT page of ters and literary, political, source, the bibliography will OFreedom Journal, the first historical and popular jour­ describe 4,000-6,000 titles and African-American newspa­ nals that record not only their locations—virtually per published in the United headlines, but ordinary, every such resource that can States in 1827, Samuel Cor­ everyday life of the African- be found in the United States, nish and John B. Russwurm American experience. But Canada, and the Caribbean. declared: "We wish to plead these cultural expressions, Beyond the extent of the our own cause. Too long like the people who wrote materials, the project also i Institution Smithsonian Gallery, Portrait -National have others spoken for us." them, often never found their demonstrates how "the his­ Frederick Douglass, ca. 1844; That impulse and obliga­ way into mainstream history. torical record has been portrait attributed to Elisha Ham­ tion typified the prodigious Today, an ambitious biblio­ deformed by the lack of fair mond. Douglass published the assortment of newspapers, graphical project will soon and equitable collecting Northern Star and Freeman's magazines, letters, newslet­ remedy that serious omission by libraries," says James P. Advocate in 1842.

HUMANITIES 21 22

—Courtesy of Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture h ceto o hs publica­ these of creation the Am erican newspapers and and newspapers erican Am m eet our n eed s," D anky anky D s," eed n oesn't d our that eet m But t.' rin P to Fit That's News the film—'All sufficed, we could settle for for the having settle could we sufficed, reasons." of kinds different for which today continues world,' 'parallel a as described we've which tions, h ags i h ol, con­ world, the in of largest the one collection, Its the of project. core the is periodicals African- of library society's trends." distinctive our have mainstream culture, but we we but culture, mainstream a of part all "We're explained. ie ( "no ls" indi­ list" "union (A wide. nation­ publications these all of percent 40 than more tains W.E.B. DuBois in W.E.B. a particular title.) particular a hold that institutions all cates nvriy n Not Car­ orth N and Fisk at University ones small from ries, reposito­ other all surveying universities. The two-volume two-volume The universities. Library, the Public gress, York on C ew N the of at ibrary L collections to national University Central olina work w ill be published by by published be ill w work Tulane and ard ow H and t a Afia- erican m frican-A A an ith w Press. University Harvard MAY/JUNE 1994 MAY/JUNE The W isconsin historical historical isconsin W The D anky and his staff are are staff his and anky D really sources general "If That this library in a state state a in library this That New York Times York New The Crisis Crisis The on on office,the during early yearstheof NAACP. p u rch a se d n e w sp a p e rs, rs, e p a sp w e n d se a rch u and p for, cajoled collector, solicited, he indefatigable An future. the for consequences tremendous pursuit have a to was that upon barked em founder, the Draper, Lyman the given logical, is completely history to African-American contribution significant such a on embark would per­ cent five only of population white male culture of early early of culture male white America. in experience of multicultural and the aspects all on tters, le periodicals ts, scrip u an m 1846, In tradition. society's Am erican history. He was was He t history. n a in erican m o Am d e th to rd historical reco the of collections immigrants. and o­ w Americans African about men, curious equally paper collection is second second is collection paper news­ society's the of size the lection is the sixth largest in in largest sixth the is col­ lection newspaper pre-1820, Its Colonial-era Library ongress. C the of of that to only w as begun in 1854, is the the is 1854, in begun as w As colonies. original thirteen a from this and nation, the American history library for for library history American which library, its hole, w a the of one not was that state the University of Wisconsin. of University the Draper did not lim it his his it lim not did Draper Thanks to Draper's fervor, fervor, Draper's to Thanks lass's pioneering publication, publication, pioneering lass's beginning. the only is That oral because largely life, American African- of antebellum accounts historical viving News Advocate man's the interests. own raper's D of sur­ few the of some collections include its project, this vey in such papers as as papers such in vey Gar­ Marcus of accounts rary known materials include include materials known the burg, Mississippi, at the turn turn the at Mississippi, burg, Vicks­ in African-Americans 1842) and the best contempo­ best the and 1842) Williamson's Williamson's 1920s and 1930s. Lesser- Lesser- 1930s. and 1920s fia-meia newspa­ erican African-Am H. R. Rev. the of copy only extant the and century, the of Rule, Golden a pbihd y h Stu­ the by published was u­ m com Iowa. in nity a ining in coal-m 1903 in rural published per C u riou sly, the W isconsin isconsin W the sly, riou 1970s. u C early the in North Carolina, Greensboro, of Black Unity for Organization dent ol, ol Pae Echo Peace World World, the repository for the records records the for repository the is library Society's Historical f h Coges f acial R of ongress C the of hr i Feeik Doug­ Frederick is There And, most importantly for for importantly most And, More recently, recently, More oten tr n Free­ and Star Northern w ok sterdam m A York ew N from New York in the the in York New from published by by published Buxton Eagle, Buxton (Albany, N.Y., N.Y., (Albany, SOBU News SOBU Negro and and The an an

y oe nvriy f is­ W of University some by papers personal and Party, to prior RE) (CO ality qu E who were on their way to to Mississippi the way in their participate on were who er form Jr., of Fishel, efforts eslie the L to due ere w movement. Civil Rights the in leaders many of Democratic Freedom sissippi Their resourcefulness led to to led resourcefulness movement. Their rights civil ing to burgeon­ the aterials document m help back bring to offered They rides. freedom staff and dents stu consin the In society. the of director Mis­ the of archives the 1963, Allen traveled to the South South the to Francis traveled illiam Allen W instance, trates another underpinning underpinning another trates said. Danky tory," his­ rights civil of sources tal approached was Fishel 1960s, ea kng r ci ­ scrip n tra g akin m began ­ te in osed p ro p he here w Carolina, South in Charleston, schools of was he superintendent Briefly occupation. of government the of part as them right at the m om ent ent om m the creation." of at right gathered ,'" e them ric "W to is 'h Danky. e said becom to als philosophy. society's the of ri d lnguit Ale llen A ist, u g lin ed classically train A in language. Cre­ ole songs indigenous the slave Gullah, heard Islands, he Sea Carolina the visit to a On education. grated oe f h ms fundamen­ most the of "one A frican-A m erican songs," songs," of erican m frican-A transcriptions A first e contains th War Civil the published after book is "H tions. We int at o materi­ for wait didn't e "W him as our first A frican - - frican A e agent." field escrib first d American our "I as him ky. an D said b ib lio g rap h ies of N ative ative N of ies h rap g lio ib b spapers ew N and since isconsin W of Historical Society State the for ian librar­ periodical and papers cations is is cations s ni- rcn, and , erican m ic-A an isp H Asian-American, American, edited or compiled has also 96 Amog i publi­ b u p his ong m A 1976. These latter collections collections latter These Fishel's receptiveness illus­ receptiveness Fishel's During the Civil War, for for War, Civil the During Danky has served as news­ as served has Danky lc Periodicals Black (1979). He He (1979). alternative periodicals and papers from black high newspapers. He has been schools... It's very difficult." involved in planning the Har­ The surviving record, vard Guide to African-American however, will provide flesh History and Studies, to which and soul to questions the bibliography will be a of researchers, librarians, companion reference. teachers, journalists, geneal­ In his experience with ogists, students, and others these diverse strands of interested in a broad range American culture, Danky has of African-American topics. discovered how narrowly A rich history is told, for focused the historical record example, in the long tradi­ can be. "It seems like a sim­ tion of publication by ple and sensible notion that churches, whose presence if you're a public institution in African-American life has studying history, you don't been significant for 200 restrict yourself to white years. The early civil rights male records," said Danky, movement can be studied himself a white male. "And through issues of C.O.R.E.- yet, if you look at the record, L ator (New York, 1949), although it's less so today, SN C C 's The Student Voice the record is white." (Atlanta, 1960), and The The bibliography's inves­ Benton County Freedom Train tigators also found "a strong (Mississippi, 1963). The reluctance of African- Afro-American newspaper, Americans and white Am­ published weekly in Balti­ ericans to retain these more since 1915, is available materials. . . Everybody has on microfilm. their own foibles, their own Other periodicals illumi­ omissions. But what needs nate the spectrum of Afro- to be noted is that you can American life: The B lack characterize, historically as Panther (1967-1980, Oakland, well as currently, biases as California); Black Ethnic Col­ to what someone thinks is lectibles: A Magazine for the

important in terms of race Black Memorabilia Collector of Wisconsin Society Historical State of lourtesy and class and gender." (published occasionally in "If all the issues of the Hyattsville, Maryland since by Amiri Baraka in Newark, years contemplated for work. Washington Post w ere des­ 1987); All-Negro Comics New Jersey. Even today, Draper's intellec­ troyed for some date in 1910, (1947-?, Philadelphia); Black Besides new discoveries, tual curiosity serves as a bea­ you could get by if you had Sacred Music: A Journal of the project is aimed at con for their investigations. to read the Washington Star," Theomusicology (1987-, improving on previous "There will be that old saw, Danky added. "But in black Durham, North Carolina); bibliographies, which are held out by some of my col­ communities, you don't have The Black Vet (1988-, Brook­ fragmentary and dated, leagues, that one cannot that option very frequently. lyn); The Colored Embalmer according to Danky. Equally collect everything," Danky And it's not that you don't (1927-1932, Chicago); and importantly, the new bibliog­ said. "But in my research, no have a second paper that sur­ The Light and "Heebie Jeebies" raphy will inform researchers one has ever tried. We do at vives you, you also have a lot (1926?-?, Chicago), which where and how to find the least give it a shot. . . . It was of other sources that are defi­ describes itself as "America's materials—through online Draper's brag and his chal­ cient in terms of information News Magazine." databases, the Internet, lenge to those of us who fol­ on African-American topics." There is the Sisterhood of microfilm, traditional cata­ lowed him to keep up our Libraries were segregated, Black Single Mothers Newsletter logues, and other sources. end of the bargain." □ and black libraries were (1984-1987?, Brooklyn); the Once material is located, a underfunded. Often they single issue of A BA : A researcher with the project neither collected nor retained Journal of Affairs of Black actually reads every single Janis Johnson is a free-lan ce records of their community's A rtists, which could not issue for verification. This writer based in Alexandria, story. Take amateur sports, secure funding for a second pair of human eyes is criti­ Virginia. for example. "For African- issue, and The Pine Torch cal; often titles are listed, Americans prior to 1954, (1905?-?), from Piney Woods but the materials were The State Historical Society of amateur sports occurred in Country Life School for Col­ never collected or their loca­ Wisconsin received a total of high schools," Danky said. ored Boys and Girls in Piney tion is uncertain. $166,447 from the Division "You frequently can find Woods, Mississippi); and Already, researchers have of Research Programs and newspapers from white high Black New Ark/Unity and documented 2,400 titles, and $130,472 from the Division of schools. But try to find news­ Struggle, which was inspired they are in the third of four Preservation and Access.

HUMANITIES 23 BLACK WOMAN

i n R u s s i a

I n 1982, p o e t G w e n d o l y n

B r o o k s v i s i t e d t h e S o v i e t

U n i o n in t h e c o m p a n y

1 o f w r i t e r s H a r r i s o n

S a l i s b u r y , E r i c a J o n g ,

S u s a n S o n t a g , a n d o t h e r s .

F o l l o w i n g is a n e x c e r p t

FROM HER UNPUBLISHED

CHRONICLE OF THAT TIME.

e must tell each other as much as possible We were to spend four days in the Ukraine, in clean Wabout each other." Kiev, exchanging views with writers Nikolai Fedorenko, —Professor Alexander I. Ovcharenko, at the Soviet-American Writers' Conference, 1982. Grigol Abashidze, Chinghiz Aitmatov, Mikhail Alexeyev, I went into Russia armed with mental pictures of Genrikh Borovik, Oles Gonchar, Mihkail Dudin, Pavlo marching men, wide peasant women in shapeless skirts Zagrebelny, Yasen Zasursky, Mstislav Kozmin, Vitaly and long-sleeved flannel toppers tied with string. I Korotich. Then we were to spend several days in expected to see dark babushkas galore. I expected to Leningrad, and several days in Moscow. experience flavorless cabbage, greasy borscht; a grim The American writers, coming from their several parts landscape, grim babies, grim mothers and fathers. Russia. of the country, met July 20 at Kennedy Airport, Scandina­ Land of the cold heart, the regimented mien. vian Air Lines lounge. There we boarded a plane for It was the summer of 1982. Copenhagen. Ideal flight, proud pilots. When we reached No, I didn't "read up" on the country before I went there. Copenhagen, one of them announced "We can now tell I wanted fresh impressions, fresh assaults on a chiefly you that there were three pilots in this cockpit and for this unschooled consciousness. landing not a one of us touched the instruments. You have I was invited by Harrison Salisbury (who died last year) just had an absolutely perfect automatic landing!" We to attend the Sixth Annual Soviet-American Writers' Con­ shivered, not with delight. ference. The travelers included Charlotte Salisbury, Mr. From my notes: "We check in at the Royal Hotel, after a and Mrs. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Irving long airport hike and a bus ride. I have a lovely private Stone, Studs and Ida Terkel, Pepperdine University Chan­ room, which is what I hoped for. All of us "singles" have cellor Norvel Young and Mrs. Young, Pepperdine Dean private rooms. I'm to meet Studs and Ida Terkel for dinner, and Mrs. Olaf Tegner, authors Robert Bly, Erica Jong, after I have a nap. In 1014,1 have a two-hour nap, and I Susan Sontag. iron my clothes, and I take a bath. Fruit is sent in by the Harrison Salisbury was, in addition to being the former hotel management. With the Terkels, poet Robert Bly, and assistant managing editor and associate editor of the New Vera Dunham (bom in Russia, with much information to York Times, a specialist in Soviet affairs. He had traveled provide, about Russian literary personalities—who's to many parts of the Soviet Union, and had written sev­ "good," who's "bad," who "writes well," who doesn't eral books. I knew I was fortunate to have as a guide the "write well," etc.)— dinner at the Belle Terrace in the Tivoli, author of The Nine Hundred Days: The Siege of Leningrad. a Riverview-ish enclosure across the street from the Royal

24 MAY/JUNE 1994 Hotel. After dinner we see a circus act outdoors: a family of letter in the name magically distinct— accompanies him­ red-covered acrobats, standing on each other or silently self on his mandolin (I think that is what it is) and in the jumping off heads and high-flung chairs. I tell Robert Bly high emotion of the moment leaps up and strides toward the story I have heard about his three-or-four-hour read­ the center of the room, thus, of course, losing the labor of ings, and how, at one of them, there being no door to use his translating equipment. "R-O-B-E-R-T!" shouts without disturbing the entire assemblage, the students Fedorenko. "Don't get excited, R-O-B-E-R-T! Take i' teasy! began to leave/one by one and two by two, out of the back Sit down! Take i' teasy!" windows. Whether Robert is happy to have this bit of Among the poems I offer is my longish "The Life of information or is not happy to have this bit of information I Lincoln West," detailing the traumas of a little Black boy cannot tell. His face is stiff. Back to the hotel. who, in a roundabout way, begins to recognize and value Flight SU-222 to Moscow, for an introductory Soviet his identity. Fedorenko is enthralled. Missing my point blessing. We are met by smiling welcomers, given flowers entirely, he rhapsodizes over little Lincoln. He tells us all, and refreshments, and Russian money for "spending and at length, about a dear little Black boy who had wan­ change." Chief among our guides is "Michael," Mikhail dered into the midst of heretofore dense folk (including Kusmenko, twenty-one, who looks quite like the sensitive­ himself). This little boy everyone found touchable and faced actor Michael York, or as York looked in Cabaret. This absolutely darling "with his nice white teeth and nice Michael (Misha) is warmly solicitous, busily helpful to us rough hair. Everyone loved to pat his nice rough hair." all, very proud of his excellent English. Michael is every­ Afterward, away from the congratulatory tables, Russian body's favorite. He travels with us to Kiev, and smilingly and American—everybody is pleased with me— I ponder helps escort us throughout our stay there. on this, and I begin to get very angry. I get angrier and Each of the three hotels is beautiful, well-furnished, angrier. And I am sorrowful. Two meetings later I cheerfully serviced. Sovetskaya Hotel in Moscow, Kiev request attention. ("PLEASE call on me, Mr. Salisbury!") Hotel in Kiev, Hotel Europeiskaja in Leningrad. — and I read the following to the congregation: In Kiev, the writers, Soviet and American, meet in a "I agree with Mr. Aitmatov— a nuclear blast would large yellow building, handsome, with great rooms, mag­ abolish everything, including all aspects of ethnic concern nificent staircases, shining floors, high ceilings. The rooms for ethnic bliss. Nevertheless, I am going to call attention are rich with decoration and planting. Guards are anxious to Blackness, a matter no one else here feels any reason to to help, to answer any questions. The atmosphere: a cite." (I am, of course, the only Black in the room and dignified but excitingly pregnant quiet. often, it seems to me, the only Black in the whole of Rus­ In one particularly long, particularly noble room, are sia, although that is not true: sometimes I see a young two "opposing" tables, for the two "opposing" representa­ tions, American and Soviet. (At one point during our pro­ ceedings, the second day I believe it was, Studs Terkel, briskly cheery, urged a shuffling: Why should all the Rus­ sians be sitting at a table together?— why should all the “ NO ONE ELSE HERE FEELS ANY REASON TO Americans be sitting at a table together?— that was the trouble in the world today! Let's mix it up a bit!— let's be cite Blackness because on the S o v ie t really together'. Nice little murmurings from the Russian side. Nice little murmurings from the American side. SIDE THERE IS VERY LITTLE ASSOCIATION There is an immediate result, a rustle, an excited rustle; a charitable change. And for the duration of our get- with Blacks. Soviets s e e very few.” together Studs Terkel is at the Soviet table with Russians. The rest of us remain in our appointed places.) There is simultaneous translation. Everyone feels comfortable enough to speak freely, and does. Arthur Schlesinger is Black male student in the street—and shortly before lunch drily analytical, drily critical. Harrison Salisbury is univer­ on this very day I have seen a whole cluster of young sal. Erica Jong wants to know: "Where are the women African basketball players from, as I recall, Zaire, and run writers? Where are the women writers?" She is informed, to semi-kiss them. During my three weeks away, entire, I rather sheepishly, that they are all on vacation. "Out in the am to see not one other Black woman, although I've been country." This is not the last time that Erica is to ask her told by Russia-traveling friends that there is an "ample" irritating question. The Russian writers know (somehow) contingent of Black women living in Russia. No Russian that Erica, (long-haired, shapely, and always beautifully wants to talk about this, however. I'm looked at strangely, dressed, having brought oodles of expensive clothes) has when I'm inclined to mention it, am abruptly left alone in written sexy books, and I have the impression that they the middle of the floor!) But to resume. To continue with are prepared to make light of her. At first they trade ras­ my statement: cally quips with her. They are surprised and discomfited "No one else here feels any reason to cite Blackness when her major speech at the table turns out to be bril­ because on the Soviet side there is very little association liant, informed, managed, sane. with Blacks. Soviets see very few. And on the American Robert Bly and I are invited to read our poetry. side there is as little association with Blacks as can com­ Robert—Fedorenko loves calling him that, with every fortably be managed, although there is great opportunity

HUMANITIES 25 in the United States of America, where there are many coffee, tea, salami, candy, fruit. In Kanev, we visit the many many many many many MANY Blacks. Well, all of memorial to the loved poet Taras Shevchenko, and the you must understand that the planet is swarming with Shevchenko Museum. dark people. The other day Nikolai Fedorenko, droll, dry, I go with some of the others to a beautiful festival of and when he's right AND when he's wrong, a strangely folk songs and dances; such innocent joyfulness; we sit in fascinating personality, out of the kindness of his heart the grass, before a stageful of these colorfully costumed (and I received it as such) 'comforted' me with a tale of a people—and are transported. dear little Black boy whom everyone found touchable, and Babiy Yar. Near Kiev's city limits. Not until I go there absolutely darling with his nice white teeth. ... Then Mr. do I understand, fully, what Yevgeny Yevtushenko did Fedorenko said something very large: "WE NEVER PAID for us in writing that poem, long since a classic. What ANY ATTENTION AT ALL TO THE FACT THAT HE used to be a high-banked deep ravine, with a water bot­ WAS NEGRO.'!!!!!!! WELL, I have to reply to this. Essential tom in which children once played, is now an arranged Blacks—by that I mean Blacks who are not trying desper­ green with a look of deceitful peace. Because no one can ately to be white— are happy to have you notice that they be peaceful in this presence. Ninety thousand Jewish peo­ do not look like you. Essential Blacks don't want to look ple, young and old, were herded here, beaten and shot to like you. You're OK, they're OK. We essential Blacks do not death by German soldiers, and buried here, in three days think it would be a blessing if everyone was of the same of September, 1941. The trees outside the bitter circle look hue. Personally, I like the idea of a garden rich with vari­ vaguely indignant and reproachful. eties of flowers. Although I like roses, I like other flowers too. So please DO, Mr. Nikolai Fedorenko, go right ahead and notice that Blacks really look and are quite different from yourself. Go right ahead and PAY ATTENTION to W h a t D o e s It M e a n To B e B l a c k . L ik e a that FACT!!!"

FOOL, I HAD TRIED TO EXPLAIN IT TO HER. STU­ Well-covered middle-aged women clean the streets of Kiev, paying an almost affectionate attention to their work. PIDLY KIND, I TRY TO EXPLAIN IT TO HER AGAIN. Seeing the Russian people in the street—watching them adjust their little girls' BIG floppy bow-ribbons which adorn the tops of the neatly groomed heads—watching them adjust the behavior of frisky little boys— watching them converse with each other, smiling, clutching fondly their In Russia I didn't see anybody who was scrawny or inevitable collections of two, three, four or more flowers hunger-bellied. Although the only non-glorious housing I which, work-time over, they are taking home —I decide was taken into was the hazardous apartment of the impul­ that these swarms of human-faced people do not want to be sive and rousing poet Bella Akhmadulina, who gave us an blown to bits. They want to go on making those little dough impromptu party. I certainly saw in the streets swarms of pies with blueberry or cherry sauce. They want to go on unedited Russian people. These looked, for the most part, patting into position their daughters' enormous bow- healthy, energetic, well-fed. In the town streets are many ribbons. They want to go on taking flowers home. many galloping young women wearing smart little suits, Chekov had a warm involvement with the details of ornate hair, stylish high heels. . . . After the Writers' Union Russian personality. It is easy to feel I am observing the meeting, a grim Babiy Yar film—bulldozers rolling over source of much Chekovian copy. Much Tolstoyan copy, tons of the dead— little children and young girls and their much Dostoievskian copy. elders of all ages stripping, to be shot, burned, or bitten___ St. Cyril's Church, Kiev: plastered with religious paint­ On luly 29, departure for Leningrad, by Aeroflot. ings. One of them in particular seizes me: a thin, coal- (Grim-looking plane, with seats close and uncomfort­ black devil, with protruding teeth (you just know the able.) Leningrad, "cradle of the Revolution"... Sobering artist considered this blackness the essence of evil visit to cemetery containing thousands of Leningrad "incarnate"!) seemingly scolding a plump, paunchy dead, German-killed; the steady mourning-music, insis­ nude white man, sitting, doctor's-patient-wise, with a tent, pressuring, distressing.... On July 30—through the towel over his knees.... Winter Palace to get to the Hermitage: The Rembrandts Before we leave clean Kiev for Leningrad (we are told are proudly cited by our guide— there are paintings, that Kiev is irresistible in all seasons, but best in May, paintings! paintings galore; and there are treasures of when the chestnut trees are in bloom), we go short dis­ jewelry, jewel boxes, jewel-encrusted swords, capes red tances to special features of Soviet history. Visits to a and jewel-encrusted, gold rings, gold necklaces, gold sixteenth-century poor man's cottage, and a nine­ bracelets, all richly wondrous.... teenth-century rich man's cottage. Equally rustic. Well, St. Isaac's Cathedral: All these cathedrals we are to see not quite. A boat ride down the Dnieper River to are high-vaulted beauties sumptuously decorated, with Kanev—pronounced Kahn-yev. The water of the impressive, large works of art throughout, and magnifi­ Dnieper River is the cleanest, clearest river water I have cent huge, engraved, intimidating inner doors. ... A drive ever seen. On the good-looking well-equipped boat we through country scenes with non-lush grass (a frequent are fed generously: good dark bread with cheese, Russian sight) to Peter the Great's Summer Palace....

26 MAY/JUNE 1994 Part of my visit's spectacle is our Company's Susan Son­ EVERYBODY, of course, but I would venture to say there tag, whose statuesque dark Jewish beauty strides through are no Tina Turners over here. No Richard Pryors. No Russia, always in slacks: always with one frontal white Eddie Murphys. No porno shows.... streak in the otherwise black hair: determinedly intellec­ The Leningrad Writers' Union: At each of our arrivals tual. She is not like Erica, who brought heavy suitcases of we have been met, with flowers and handshakes from dresses, shoes, makeup. Susan at lunch: "Why are the smiling Writers' Union people. Here in Leningrad at the wives here?" (meaning the American wives—Mrs. Irving Writers' Union special meeting we are afforded buttered Stone, Mrs. Harrison Salisbury, Mrs. Arthur Schlesinger, bread with caviar, coffee, vodka, and other amenities. all of whom are writers of distinction, and the wives of Erica Jong stands up and mourns the absence of "the the dean and chancellor of Pepperdine University.) It was women writers." (Again.) We are told by a jesting director, fascinating sitting behind Susan on the whizzing Intourist stout and businessman-looking, that the men have sent bus: "I have two books on h im .. . . I h av e four books on their writing wives off to summer resorts, it being sum­ him . . . . I have four translations on him .... I have that mer, yok-yok. But before Erica J.'s assault, Harrison Salis­ author in SIX translations" ... Her companion: "Oh! One bury has called on me to lead the self-"explanations." I of the most beautiful bridges!" Susan: "Yes. I've seen say to this Leningrad contingent, "My name is Gwen­ pictures of it." Her companion: "That's a—" Susan imme­ dolyn Brooks. I'm a Black poet— you can see that. And I diately: "Yes I read about it long before I came here." want to say how much I appreciate this opportunity to ... Susan got very "mad" at me in Leningrad. Her back had been listening, as we waited for a palace admission, to Freda Lurye, an editor of Foreign Literature, the highly respected Russian magazine, who was questioning me, as B u t b e f o r e E r ic a J.’s a s s a u l t , H a r r i s o n she had been doing for days, relentlessly: What Does It Mean To Be Black. Like a fool, I had tried to explain it to S a l i s b u r y h a s c a l l e d o n m e t o l e a d t h e her. Stupidly kind, I try to explain it to her again. In the midst of my answer in the middle of my sentence, Freda SELF -“EXPLANATIONS.” I SAY TO THIS whirls abruptly, touches Susan, asks Susan: What Does It Mean To Be Black? Susan begins to inform her. I burn. I L e n i n g r a d c o n t i n g e n t , “ M y n a m e is address Freda. I say (approximately) "Why do you turn from me to her with this question? Obviously, being G w e n d o l y n B r o o k s . I’m a B l a c k p o e t — Black, I know more about What It Means To Be Black than does she.'' Susan (approximately): "How dare you YOU CAN SEE THAT. AND I WANT TO SAY HOW assume such Nonsense" (her rage capitalizes the word) etc. etc. etc., in agitated spew. By now we are entering this MUCH I APPRECIATE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO palace, and are proceeding to the little anteroom where we must remove our shoes, for the Russians are lovingly MEET RUSSIAN PEOPLE, AND HOW MUCH I protective of their palace floors. Susan is screaming. My outrageous fancy that I know more about Being Black APPRECIATE THEIR WELCOMING KINDNESS.” than she knows has pushed her to a wild-eyed frenzy. We are sitting beside each other on the low wooden bench provided for shoe-removing. She continues to scream. Finally, she utters an unforgettable sentence—which I can meet Russian people, and how much I appreciate their report exactly, because I wrote it down immediately: "I welcoming kindness." Later, I read my poem for Michael, TURN MY BACK UPON YOU." And she does. She carries to wild applause (these people, these Russian people, are out this awesome threat. She turns her Back upon me, warmly serious about poetry, they feel and love poetry.) with a gr-r-eat shake of her bottom to appall me. The poem is translated, a bit, by cold-voiced, imperious I am ass-uredly impressed. Marina, one of our Leningrad guides, then it is taken over Of course, S.S. had every right to resent my jumping into by Sasha (Alexander), who claims the right "because-I- her Possession of a conversation. I was guilty of a breach have-seen-this-poem." A major announcement. "I know of etiquette. So were the hosts of the Boston Tea Party. this poem." Michael—Mikhail Kusmenko—("Mischa") is merrily disgruntled by the translation, saying to me, "My At a concert, with merry singing and variety acts, and eyes are not 'quick' and 'smart,' but 'beautiful'!!!!!!!" I say dainty little dances, it occurred to me that there is a certain "That's OK, Michael, they are beautiful too!!!!" I'm having Innocence about the Russian people. It's a puzzle. Or at fun with nice little Sasha's twist of my language—but least it is puzzling to us, the American "sophisticates," so Michael says with serious shyness, "Thank you." used to dirt, disarray, degradation. Young Russian people . . . Dostoievsky. The Apartment. His last apartment. (great cigarette-smokers, incidentally) claim to know noth­ Round-top black hat in the little entrance hall (his hat). ing of drugs or drug-running. They claim to know nothing Umbrellas (not his but typical of the time.) Clusters of family of really violent crime. Their stage-shows may have pictures on the papered walls. Dining room— no carpet now advanced to increased flesh-revelation, but the meticulous or formerly the guide assures us— with handsome heavy little dancers never really let themselves go. I haven't seen furniture; on the dark table a samovar, large, heavily

HUMANITIES 27 flourishing, ready for tea, a buffet with comely dishes and dresses are thinned-out cotton, over which there may be cups. The Study!—where D. wrote—And the ponderous, worn sad blue or green or dust-pink sweaters, listlessly wide, red-pattem upholstered sofa, on which he died, and buttoned over wide square bodies or other bodies with which is right behind the heavy, large dark desk, on which billowing bellies.... Afternoons: plump women sitting, we see his last half glass of tea— supposedly!! "I won't drink not on their porches, but in front of their fences.... These the tea," promises Irving Stone when he requests permission substantial women may be seen, also, in bus-stalls, at to sit in D's chair and to hold D's pen. ("Now that you've let bus-lines, stalls provided with benches painted over with me hold the pen, may I hold it again, and have my wife take red and yellow, or stripes.... Interiors: many interiors, a picture"— which is done, to the music of incredulous seen from the street—just a sneak's-eye view—reveal gasps by myself and the Terkels.) We see the nursery, with a themselves as drear, drab, sad.... Wet clothes hang here, map on the wall, a doll, picture books, a rocking horse. Then as in the States,... hang from windows—from clothes­ we are taken by Ganna, the delightful giggly, prettily lines— over lines of fence. Familiar itemata: I am plump, dark-haired little curator of this Dostoievsky repeatedly impressed by the numbers of old Museum, to the narrow room that, she tells us, once served w om en. . . here is a woman praying, behind a locked as a kitchen—two large Dostoievsky family portraits have cathedral door, making her Catholic signs. Then she been introduced to a wall. Here, at a round table, Ganna, her strides her short, enhanced self down the rocky quietly efficient assistant helping her, serves us tea, delicious road... Father Paul, at the Zagorsk seminary, and the tea, with Loma Doone-ish cookies; and those little chocolate Zagorsk cathedral.... Then another cathedral where, candies twisted in colorful manipulations of that waxy when people, any people, any private people, are moved paper you have encountered before in Russia. Minor bio­ to commemorate a family member or loved friend, they graphical details from Ganna Bograd, who gives us, also, a come in groups to sing in beautiful rich Russian little book she has written about D., and descriptive materi­ voices...Question: How are the songs chosen—for the als partly in English. How pleasant! Possibly the most choices should suit everyone—how can that be achieved? purely pleasant and charming half hour I am to spend in Moscow. We're snug in the Sovetskaya. Elegant stair­ Russia. Downstairs we find the Terkels (the Terkels had cases, sedate halls, fine furnishings, fine dining room, fine gone downstairs before tea, Studs pleading weariness). food. (Throughout this Russian trip we've had delicious Studs is enjoying mightily what we hear, in our clearer state, food. Non-slimy borscht! Rich dark bread. Tomatoes and a semi-drunkenly offered opera piece. The singer is a very cucumbers galore. Shishkebab, fruits, ice cream. And, out­ flirtatious "Anatoly." doors, excellent ice cream cones, much loved by the popu­ August 2,1982—Last day in Leningrad; we go to one lace. Apple tarts. Veal, lamb, beef, pork, chicken, fish. last palace, with glittery, much-decorated rooms. Here, Guava preserves. Potatoes in various arrangements. Harrison Salisbury speaks in affectionate Russian to a Heavy soups. The popular little dough pies also, but I tiny woman serving as a door attendant. She lights up refuse to eat dough.) when she hears this American using her own beloved The trip to Zagorsk, for more tours through more language. He asks if she has lost anyone in the siege of museums and distinguished churches, with their leaders Leningrad. She has. She is reluctant to say goodbye to in conscious regalia.... A visit to the Kremlin—but we him.... Pushkin's school. I see his first school-written are treated to very little of it, and that little we are lines.... The Salisburys and I visit the neat, light apart­ whisked through rapidly: Such a whirlwind exterior tour ment of Alexandr Blok.... Nice train to Moscow at leaves me with no clear impression. On the fast trip to 11:55 p.m., arriving in Moscow at 8:30 a.m. (after a nice Zagorsk, I see—with difficulty— open doorways that breakfast with hot tea, served us in our attractive com­ afford views of gloomy, ragged, desperate interiors. partments.) It's the Sovetskaya H otel.... We visit one of Guide Marina does not want to answer any questions Tolstoy's houses, a mighty house in the country. In a about these. She is, in fact, getting quite sick of my days- large case, his bicycle, two pairs of boots he made for long questions about "houses." "May we see some of the friends. His office holds a big desk, a sofa, quite like the houses?" Answers are vague or vacuous. Eventually, in imposing sofa on which Dostoievsky died. To the right reference to an isolated non-grand but non-horrible of the desk, against the wall, is a large writing or draw­ square, Marina barks angrily, "There's a house, Gwen-do- ing stand. In this office Tolstoy wrote one hundred lyn. You wanted to see houses." works. Quite dark, this office.... In the packed downtown streets of Moscow, the Russian ... Old old women within the protecting walls of cathe­ people seem to be walking all in a single parade, a com­ drals. Some with winter coats (on August fourth.).... No pact parade. The tempo is similar, at least on the neat top, matter how shabby or decrepit a house, presence of the to that of United States downtowners. customary flowers or flower! gracing windows. On the Before we leave Moscow we are guests at Ambassador streets, always, both men and women, carrying flowers Hartman's mansion. Sumptuous. An open, modern, home. Just a few, wrapped in skimpy paper, or not sophisticated splendor. The ambassador's wife greets me wrapped.... The woods are quiet and beautiful and warmly, because she has known and, she says, loved my reaching— and there are many: but in Moscow, I observe, poetry for many years. Bella Akhmadulina is there. As almost all green areas are weedy. Sometimes you see old you read her poetry you feel that you've got a nervous lit­ women in babushkas, wide dresses, and worn heavy tle worm in 'possession'—a bright, twisty, unexpectedly shoes, weeding the green. Some of these weeders' wise little worm; and meeting her personally, you feel

28 MAY/JUNE 1994 exactly that! It is on this occasion that Bella carts some of ence immediately, sharply!" I do, I do. First of all, there is us off, post-reception, to the rinky-dink apartment she an unmistakable, feelable presence of hope in the air, shares with her present husband, who paints, sculpts, cre­ noticeable on this second "experience" of Copenhagen as, ates set designs. Bella was once married to Yevtushenko. logically, it had not been on the first. This is not to You reach the wild, pouty apartment via a tiny, rickety counter-suggest that the Russians looked miserable, but elevator, which can take only five of us at a rising. We rise hope was not what I saw as their aura; what I saw as their by fives, and are returned by fives to the vast cold spirit of aura was sanction. the first floor. Escape. In the Copenhagen airport—abundance. Abundant What else is Moscow to me? What further "knowl­ wares. Cheeses and sausages and candies and games and edges" of Moscow do I gather to bring home? The beauti­ jewelry and clothing. ful information that it is safe to walk anywhere in In New York: cough drops. And lots and lots of beauti­ Moscow, day or night. The appealing fact that so very ful blackness all around me. many of the citizenry go home from work carrying flow­ I want to close with that poem I wrote for Michael. It says ers—a bunch of them, or a few. It is not true that Russians what I think of the essential spirit of youth in Russia. are "rude." I encountered curiosity here and there, that translated into puzzlement that a Black woman was walk­ ing their streets, but chiefly I encountered pleasantness, MICHAEL, YOUNG RUSSIA smiling or unsmiling "tolerance," or downright cheery To (Mikhail Kusmenko, twenty-one years old) welcoming. An author's wife, after our forty minutes or From a Black Woman so of casual conversation, hugged me fiercely, exclaiming bom in America—whose origin is Afrika. loudly "We like you!" .... Such a serious appreciation of poetry: One poet asks me the size of a customary edition of poetry in the United States. I reply that, if a poet in the Michael, I see you! United States sells an edition of five thousand copies, he In the Russian winter. or she is "doing well." My questioner is amazed, and The lights in your quick, smart eyes declares that in Russia an edition of a hundred thousand are dancing with snow-sparkle. copies is perfectly ordinary. Listening, I remember that You ski; you skate over the ice. Yevtushenko and Voznesensky have recited, often, to In your heart you shout audiences of fourteen thousand or more. And I remember "I breathe! I am alive! what celebration enveloped me because I wrote a poem My body is moving! about Michael!. ... It is not true that Moscow audiences My body knows life is good and my body responds! sit dull-eyed through theater or opera performances. I see I am a straight response, a Reverence! the same smiles and shining eyes, hear the same gasps, And I love all the people in the world!" giggles and happy frequent applause as I find in Chicago, Michael— New York, San Francisco and Peoria.... Here plump I see you in the woods of Moscow and Kiev, stomachs are OK! I see hundreds and hundreds of affectionate with deer and branch and flower. them!—male and female stomachs out-thrust and non- apologetic!— I do glimpse some cozy little houses, behind Young Russia! fences. . . . I love seeing the babies in their strollers, You are an affectionate spirit, pushed by young mothers in neat red sweaters, blue with arms stretched out to sweaters, print dresses-----It is not true that all Russians life and love and truth and Celebration, feel pounded. . . . It zs true that the loved children are with arms stretched out to spectacularly well-behaved.... Good-looking modern what is clean and kind. clothes are the norm, not the exception.... I meet Thursday, July 29,1982, Kiev Moscow people who explain Soviet uneasiness by point­ ing to a symbol such as the siege of Leningrad— a million (With sincere respect and admiration for one of the and a half deaths in nine hundred days. In short, "all we" finest young men I ever met.)

are watchful because when we have not been watchful —Copyright © 1988, by Gwendolyn Brooks Blakely we have been assailed, and assailed, and assailed.... (Forgot to record that, in a Leningrad park, we saw a From Michael, Christmas, 1982—a beautiful card show­ famed statue of the highly respected Black poet Alexan­ ing St. Basil's with Santa Claus in a sleigh before it: der Pushkin. Susan Sontag got as close as she could, spread her arms wide, and shrieked "My Pushkin! My Dear Gwendolyn, Pushkin!" I wish I had a picture of that.) I hope very much that you haven't forgotten me. I want Another of my knowledges: Certainly those who have to wish you and yours the best of everything for 1983.1 not visited this part of the world are ineligible to vote on treasure evergreen memories of our meeting and your what it is or is not. poem. I'll be happy to meet you again some day. Mean­ When I disembark at Copenhagen's airport I observe while, my warmest regards and friendly love. instantly that what Jean Stone, Irving's wife, had said to Always, Misha. □ me is true: "You'll notice brightness. You notice a differ­

HUMANITIES 29 I n th e fall o f 1992, M a r th a B o h a c h ev sk y C h o m ia k to o k leave fr o m th e E n d o w m en t to g o to U k ra in e TO TEACH UNIVERSITY STUDENTS. In THIS ARTICLE SHE DESCRIBES THE SHIFTING ACADEMIC ATMOSPHERE.

hat happens to a country that loses its history? lions in the famine of 1933; loss of more lives in the How does a people emerge simultaneously deportations and arrests of 1945. Industrialization was from the dual vise of inefficient totalitarianism implemented at great human cost to serve the center. In the and culturally pervasive colonialism? Is there entire Soviet Union not one factory was set up so that it Wroom for the humanities amid political and economic insta­ could draw on local resources—goods had to be shipped bility? As I prepared for a year of teaching at the University from elsewhere. The collapse of the Soviet Union was of Kiev, I wondered how Ukrainian students would react to bound to bring with it economic dislocations. an American teaching them the history of their land. Historically, Ukraine had introduced Russia to modem In the past, only the rare courageous instructor permitted education, but it was also a Ukrainian cleric, in the service some questions at the end of the session. I worried how to of Peter I, who showed the Muscovite tsar the path to direct establish the discourse of the humanities in a country in imperial power. Ukraine's language was outlawed, its which the terminology used in humanistic discourse had schools closed, its population subjected to various degrees been debased. How does one introduce the notion of of forced Russification. After the failure of the Ukrainian teacher-student dialogue when the last seventy years killed National Republic in the period of the Revolutions of 1917, the very concept of that relationship? Ukraine underwent a number of metamorphoses, becoming I have been working on topics of Ukrainian, Russian, and ultimately a soviet socialist republic. Eastern European history for more than a quarter of a cen­ The nuclear contamination at Chernobyl brought the tury. My ancestors come from Ukraine, born in the same Ukrainians into the public arena. Weighing each step so as cities but because of shifts in borders, in different coun­ not to provoke a Russian reaction, Ukraine asserted sover­ tries— the Austrian Empire, Poland, Russia. I grew up in eignty in 1990 and its independence in 1991, after the failed the United States, a full-fledged product of the American Moscow coup. Although the complex intertwining of the educational system. The peculiarities of the Soviet system industries in Ukraine with those in Russia and the other were such that I could not get a visa there until 1980. But I successor republics is drawing the republics into an eco­ traveled through Eastern Europe, and met enough Soviet nomic union that may have political repercussions, cultur­ citizens to have had a good understanding of the system ally Ukraine is attempting to strike out again on its own. In before I even set foot on its erstwhile territories. large measure this is an exercise in history, especially the history of the 1920s, which was a vibrant period in litera­ kraine is a large country, with a developed infrastruc­ ture, theater, and art. Most of the artists and writers of that Uture of scholarly institutions, economic resources, period, however, were killed, and their works banned. The cultural establishments, a trained and often hard-working rediscovery of the "executed renaissance" is providing vali­ population. Oppression, want, and poverty are not immedi­ dation for the new directions taken by young artists. To a ately apparent. To the contrary, it is the beauty of the land lesser degree, the rediscovered historians and other scholars that makes the first impression, its gently rolling country­ are also providing direction to the new scholarship, but here side, the majestic rivers with miles of rushes hiding fisher­ the process is slower. The scholars hold conferences on this men, the seemingly unspoiled, unpopulated sandy beaches or that "rediscovered" scholar; and newspapers run popu­ that touch the pristine steppe. The vast sky is still often clear lar stories that fan interest in scholarship and in the redis­ blue, and even the marshes of Polissia gleam with an irides­ covery of the history of the Ukrainians. cent celadon mist that has its charm. In the cities one sees Contemporary Ukraine, as other post-Soviet republics, pre­ well-dressed people, the youth joking, the behatted adults sents an interesting mixture of want and entitlement. Despite ambling along. One sees the potential power of this second the low standard of living, most former Soviet individuals largest European country. have come to expect certain, albeit very modest, perquisites— Through the last two centuries Russia had grappled with from subsidized bread to guaranteed jobs, apartments, even the question of whether Russia is Europe, or as the romantic cars and travel. The cost was toeing the line and a tacit accep­ poet Tuitchev argued "she has an essence of its own...." tance of the system. Many of the shortcomings remain in Ukrainian intellectuals, on the other hand, had no hesitation place, as do many of the persons who prospered. about Ukraine being Europe. Although often cut off from the The situation in the humanities is as complex and unset­ West, they prided themselves on their Western heritage— tled as in other areas of endeavor. The professional organi­ Renaissance, Reformation, private schooling, even Latin con­ zations, such as the Union of Writers or the Academy of nections. Now they are surprised that their credentials Sciences, fear an end to their privileges while they welcome are questioned. the expanded opportunity for travel and advancement. Obviously, Russia is a major problem for Ukraine, a love- Limitations on travel and publishing no longer exist, but hate relationship complicated by long-term imperial and there are not funds for either. Soviet policy of settling Russians in non-Russian territory. Except for Sevastopol, home of the disputed Black Sea Ukraine struggles with building a new state on the rubble of Fleet, travel in Ukraine is unrestricted. The country is beau­ the old colonial administration, under constant provocation tiful even in the gloom of winter, hoarfrost gleaming on from Russian nationalists whom President Yeltsin cannot sepia trees that intersect the miles of fertile land. In the hem in. Economic reform, and hence aid, is moving faster to spring Kiev swims in the fragrant bloom of acacia, chestnut, Russia than to Ukraine. jasmine, and early roses. And the summer—well, the sum­ Lenin laid the groundwork for the policy that subjected mer has been lovingly described by Gogol, who trans­ Ukraine to untold visitations— loss of independent farmers formed his nanny's Ukrainian folktales into masterpieces of in the brutal collectivization campaign of 1928; loss of mil­ Russian literature. Gogol's pictures reemerge in the bucolic

30 MAY/JUNE 1994 countryside, which had been off-limits to foreigners for avoidance of issues that could cause serious problems for decades. I criss-cross the country with the exhilaration of a the present. Ukraine's archives, until two years ago, child excused from school on a beautiful May day. I swim remained military objects and access was carefully con­ in the Black Sea, ski in the Carpathians, hike in the forests, trolled. I had been told in 1980 while working on a book drive through the steppes. I'm lulled by the gentleness of that there were no documents on the Union of Ukrainian the land, the friendliness of the people. Women. Twelve years later as I walked into the archive, the It takes a conscious effort to remember that the sea is pol­ old guard, recognizing me, told me that the materials for luted by industrial waste and the land ruined in one of the which I had been looking were now available. It had been less publicized but disastrous agricultural schemes of Nikita feared, apparently, that the information in the archive could Khrushchev. It was he, a Russian raised on the border of the strengthen the argument that community organizations in Ukraine, and later his successor, Leonid Brezhnev, also a Ukraine historically had been democratic. Russian from Ukraine's borders, who experimented disas­ Scholarship in Ukraine under the Soviets was hemmed in trously with the plowing of the virgin lands. The rivers, by ideological as well as by provincial strictures. As in the which in earlier centuries had made fish the poor man's sta- rest of the USSR, scholars were provided with opportunities

R ediscovering th e H um anities in U kraine BY MARTHA BOHACHEVSKY CHOMIAK

pie, are nowadays home to flotsam, not to fish. The reactor and amenities if they did not overstep the boundaries set up in Chernobyl hides yet another ugly secret: the leaking sar­ by the regime. Although some of the censorship was self- cophagus heats the water in the large artificial lake on Pryp- imposed, control over the humanities was quite stringent. iat that threatens to flood historic Kiev and its churches. Changing interpretations of Marxist ideology always included the stricture that Russia should serve as the model y students, whose knowledge of Ukrainian history is and measure of Ukraine's cultural development. Ukraine's Msketchy, shared with me the informal stories their own current studies resemble geological excavations, digging grandparents had told them, sotto voce to be sure, about the through layers of permissible secondary interpretations Great Patriotic War, that is, World War II. Many of the through accessible archival material until one reaches the Soviet soldiers who served on the European front ended up sources at the heart of the matter. in Siberia because Stalin feared that their knowledge of even It was therefore with some excitement that I became part war-shattered Europe could raise questions about the Soviet of the review committee in the defense of a dissertation on standard of living, which was presented internally as the the revolutionary events of 1919 that dealt with Bolshevik highest in the world. Siberian gulags deepened the soldiers' policies toward Ukraine. The dissertation, based on primary knowledge of the West by throwing them together with the source material only recently opened to scholars, was crisp prisoners from the former Austrian and Polish territories. and thorough, though limited in scope. Even so it was eons Khrushchev's amnesty brought the soldier-prisoners back removed from some of the propagandistic prattle that to Ukraine, there to meet the children of their own children. passed for scholarship fewer than ten years ago. The candi­ Wherever one turns in Kiev, or elsewhere in Ukraine, for date worked on his own; the mentor's role was a formality. that matter, there is a wall of history— and it is indeed a Many scholars use the opportunity of the new freedom of wall since Ukrainians are notoriously ignorant of their his­ expression not so much for research, as to expound on their tory. Partly that is due to the perverted historical picture views of the world, humanities, progress, democracy, and the they have been given; partly it is due to the conscious role of Ukraine and its intelligentsia. Daily newspapers, in

HUMANITIES 31 good Eastern European tradition, are full of editorial com­ A problem I had with many students in Kiev was a con­ ment. There are few female by-lines— the women are busy ceptual one. For most of them a historical fact was a histori­ hunting for goods, growing and canning food, and in general cal fact, and issues of interpretation and approach were maintaining the households along with performing their pro­ strange concepts. But they warmed up to the idea of class fessional duties. Although I had done a history series broad­ discussion, and learned quickly the difference between cast on Voice of America and Radio Liberty and my polemics and debate. Had they been given a chance, they publications have appeared in both languages, there was would have done well in writing papers. The dean of the some confusion when I showed up at the history faculty of history faculty, however, did not think it a good idea for the the university: I somehow did not fit the mold of the full pro­ American to grade his history students, or for the students fessor. It did not occur to me to unearth the dean's letter nam­ to be subjected for long to an alien form of instruction. The ing me full professor that more than a decade ago had given course, it turned out, had been an elective, so at least one of me such great pride. The dean of history and I began a ban­ my suggestions had been followed. tering conversation, I quoting abstruse poetry and even more n the private university, the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, abstruse philosophy, and with that my place was assured. where I taught in the summer, American type of discus­ The rank determined my salary, but nothing prepared me I sion was kid's stuff for the students. Reestablished in 1990, for the manner of receiving the money. In the middle of one the academy draws on a history, which though interrupted, of my lectures the student assistant of the department antedates Harvard by some thirty years. The students were arrived with a box full of local currency, a list of all depart­ interested in women's studies, in community organization, mental faculty with their salaries, a pencil to check off that I and had already organized an active extracurricular pro­ received my pay. In full view of the students my monthly gram run by students. salary was counted out (it was more than ten times larger That is not the case with the Kiev University, which in the than the largest scholarship stipend, but it hardly lasted a fall of 1992 had dropped the term State from its name but week, and averaged out between twenty dollars and thirty changed very little else in the institution. A week or so into dollars on the semilegal black market.) When I mentioned the semester the dean asked the Kievan second-year stu­ the awkwardness of the procedure, the vice chairman began dents, who were assigned to my class, to elect three from delivering the money to my apartment. She added home­ their midst as representatives to the student assembly. To made preserves, concerned that my living alone was not my surprise, no students volunteered to run, and the dean conducive to proper eating habits. Her example was fol­ nominated three good students for that function. I asked lowed by other colleagues who delivered items to which why none of them wanted to be elected to a body that could they had access—potatoes, potent spirits (homemade to conceivably help change the structure of the teaching at the chase away the cold), pickled cabbage, and the herbal teas university, and insist on electives and more choices for stu­ they picked. They were concerned that the American would dents. They argued that the system under which they func­ suffer from shortages in their land; they explained that they tioned could not be modified until the government structure were inured to want, and I was not. As it was, they were was changed. Eagerly, over a cup of coffee that had almost quite impressed that Americans could cope with the condi­ become too expensive for them, these young persons tions so different from those in the States. What they found explained to me how they knew first-hand the pervasive most surprising was our willingness to come for an corruption of the "legality" of the Soviet era, and how it extended stay to their country. undermined any kernels of youthful idealism. Their reaction ducation in Ukraine had been both centralized and provided yet another proof for my earlier contention that ERussified. The Ministry of Education, the Academy of one of the worst crimes of the Soviet regime was the destruc­ Sciences, and the defense ministries ran the schools. The cur­ tion of the actual discourse of democracy. By going through riculum was highly structured and in the humanities the fac­ the motions of social participation it destroyed hope in the ulty had to abide by the program decided upon by the efficacy of any community action and robbed the population ministry and the university officials. Students were accepted of a language which could be used to rally the population to into a specific major and there was little provision for elec­ establish conditions for its own self-help. "Newspeak" tives. Students still take about six lecture courses a semester. destroyed the preconditions for creating a new society, or Upper division students do take some seminar courses, but reactivating the dormant one. It did not, however, destroy a compared to the best of American colleges, write few origi­ conscious desire of activists to try to change the system. nal research papers. Many of them explained to me that I, as Some of the same Ukrainian students who lectured me on a scholar, should simply teach them, they had so much to the futility of working through the university administra­ learn. And did I really want to waste my time discussing tion, had gone on a hunger strike in October 1990, setting up issues with them that could more effectively be lectured to tents on Kiev's main street in front of the huge statue of them? And please, Madame Professor—they had with a Lenin to demand the dismissal of the Soviet prime minister great deal of pleasure switched to this old Western form of for Ukraine, Vitaliy Masol, for ineptitude. The resignation of address rather than the earlier name and patronymic— we Prime Minister Masol was the only such case in the entire just want to hear you talk. What they wanted to hear most history of the USSR. Soon after, the USSR as we knew it was stories about the United States, and how the young peo­ ceased to exist. The students joined the democratic move­ ple lived there and what the system of education was. And ment, some of the veterans formed a defense league that was it true that the unemployed received stipends? If so, accompanied the Ukrainian Jews who went to Moscow to why would anyone want to work, anyway? Many students attend the first modem Jewish congress. They were activists wanted to know the cost of education in the USA and the in the election campaign for the semidemocratic Parliament lifestyles of students. They were intrigued to find out how that was elected in 1991. But their enthusiasm abated after many of our students put themselves through schools with three years. They were no longer very vocal among the his­ wages earned from part-time jobs. tory students at Kiev University in the fall of 1992. The time

32 MAY/JUNE 1994 for protest had passed. My students, showing a wisdom that address audiences from the Carpathian mountains to the belied their knowledge of history, felt that they needed to Black Sea coast, to meet with farmers of the north and with study before they could act effectively. faculty in the southwest. The audiences were responsive, alert, For many decades the West, and especially the USA, had keen to learn and to pose questions. Like the university stu­ been the golden dream of the young, not so much the dents, they wanted to know the curriculum of the high model as the idol about which they dreamed. My students schools, the way in which we raised our children. They won­ at Kiev University simply wanted to hear first-hand what dered if I had been discriminated against because of my an American university looks like, what the students learn, immigrant status. Where did I learn so much about the how they live. My suggestion that they try to apply to an history of Russia? Who taught me the history of Ukraine? Is American school met with the same whimsical skepticism there government support of religion in the United States? as my exhortation to run for school office. That was in the Did our government know about the gulags? Will there be a history department, one of the more conservative ones in Nuremberg trial for the Soviet functionaries? Or, better yet, let the school. The journalism students, who had to fight for bygones be bygones, show us how to run the economy effi­ entrance into the school rather than coast on parental influ- ciently and we'll manage with the functionaries on our own.

ence, looked for ways to get into an exchange or training One of the first trips I took was sponsored by a waste man­ program as soon as they began working. One heartening agement concern, a new type of business in this part of the story was about a young woman from Chernihiv, a city of world. Two directors and two staff members were to travel churches on the slopes of the Desna river, which went into from Kiev to the southwestern city of Ivano-Frankivsk, a gate­ eclipse in the Stalin years. Few foreigners visited, but with way to the Carpathian mountains. Until two years ago it was perestroika a number of American businessmen ventured the regional center for the missile system of the former USSR, there. Olena Prokopovych, a high school graduate who had and off limits to foreigners. It had also been the site of the first learned English largely on her own, translated for the public meeting of Ukrainian women back in 1884, a topic on group. Her English was so good, and her desire to study so which I had written extensively. Moreover, it was home— pronounced, that one of the businessmen suggested she after Siberian exile—of one of the foremost painters of con­ apply to an American college. Prokopovych, now in her temporary Ukraine, Opanas Zalyvakha. Zalyvakha had been third year at Williams College, has begun a summer pro­ a close friend of the poet Vasyl Stus, who died in a Siberian gram through which other Ukrainian students can learn prison, much of his deeply philosophical poetry lost. (The how to apply for financial help and admission to American search for Stus's grave, as well as his reburial in Kiev in 1989, schools. The program enables her to spend summers in was a demonstration that the Soviet regime was no longer Ukraine, closer to her beloved Desna. morbidly feared.) One of the waste company executives had ven as I was complaining of the level of education in risked all in being a pallbearer at the reburial of Stus. Now, his EUkraine, griping about the slow pace of educational firm was combining business with culture and bringing an reform, laughing at some of the old-style party approaches evening of Stus's poetry to one of the major factories of Ivano- among the administrative personnel of the university, I had a Frankivsk. Zalyvakha, the painter, would reminisce about much broader public forum than any we have in the United Stus; Dmytro Stus, the son, would read his father's poetry; States. Invitations came pouring in to speak at gatherings, to Olia Bohomolets, a ballad singer and the granddaughter of a take part in panel discussions on radio and television, to scientist accused by Stalin of treason, would sing a few of her

HUMANITIES 33 compositions. As an American who had been interviewed on provided they didn't dig wells but rather trekked the forty radio about Stus's poetry, I was to be included. miles to the river for water. Descendants of these families, The train ride took eighteen hours. On arrival, we were having since trekked through the Siberia into which the greeted at the Ivano-Frankivsk train station with cameras, Soviets had exiled their parents and grandparents for having microphones, banners, and a group of children singing and been effective farmers, drove me through the Black Sea declaiming poetry written for the occasion. The children coast, pointing out rare grasses and reminding me of the braved intrusive train announcements and sang about a contributions to the area made by Greeks, Armenians, female crane returning to the ruined native nest while other Bavarians, Koreans. At the same time they conveyed a sense cranes basked in comfort in America. Stus Junior was of pride that the land was theirs, and that they grew the best treated to similar touching verse. I looked at the children. crops on it. If only, they echoed the others I met, they were The oldest could not have been more than nine; their parents left in peace to till their soil, do their work, educate their had been raised under the Soviets, and the woman who children, to build a better life for themselves in the land that drilled them in the paeans she wrote had spent time in had been theirs a long time ago. They built bonfires on the Siberia. It was as if there had been no Soviets. I was back to beach to grill the fish they caught, and assembled audiences the nineteenth century. It could even be Britain, with in the cities to hear me lecture. declaiming and singing and greeting, with flowers, and n my travels through the countryside, visiting the few expressions of hope. remaining palaces and formal gardens of the Polish mag­ On another trip, the legacy of the past, the unarticulated I nates who in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had guilt of survivors, was vividly highlighted. A group of writ­ lorded over the fertile plains, stopping at the grave of one of ers and I traveled to Baturyn, a little village off the beaten the founders of the Jewish Hasidim, pausing at this or that track and the seat of the leader of the Cossacks, Hetman site of a battle long forgotten or perhaps not even known, I Ivan Mazepa (ca. 1640-1709). The program began a little was continually struck by the tranquility of the land. Among after noon, so that the farmers could wash up after their the few philosophers it produced in the seventeenth century morning chores. Peter I ordered Baturyn to be leveled to the was Hryhoriy Skovoroda, a Socratic itinerant teacher who ground in 1708, as soon as he heard that Mazepa turned fled from the structured Latin schools to wander in the lush against him. The entire population of the town, some 20,000 Poltava countryside teaching a message of simplicity, indi­ women, children, and older men (the younger ones went to vidual rectitude, and charity. Today, in Skovoroda's home­ the army) was tortured and slaughtered, their crucified bod­ town, the reason to get up early on Sunday is to shop at the ies thrown into the river to float to the Dnieper as a deterrent weekly bazaar, where pork prices are cheaper (the pork to others not to join Mazepa's ill-fated attempt at indepen­ often comes live) and shoddy Chinese shoes may be pur­ dence. No new settlements were permitted within the chased at exorbitantly high prices, if one is lucky. Descen­ twenty-mile radius of old Baturyn. The new Baturyn, built at dants of Skovoroda's countrymen want a better life. They mid-eighteenth century was a small village with no hint of want to major in business, or to go into business, they want its tragic past. Many of the peasants had heard of Lidice, the a market without necessarily understanding what the mar­ Czech village that the German Nazis razed to the ground in ket economy really is. They hunger for food, and thirst for a retaliation for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich, the notori­ just and better life, but they also yearn for beauty and spiri­ ous Nazi "Hangman of Europe." The villagers wanted to tuality. From the crassest fortune tellers, to extrasensory know why they had been kept in the dark about the tragedy artists, healers, preachers, to a back-to-nature movement of their own town. These people had been robbed of their that seeks to reconcile the shod foot with the bare ground, historical memory, and in trying to recapture it, they felt they flock, each at their own pace and at their own level to shame and remorse at their ignorance. the source that goes beyond the materialism they had been The past, not history, lives in the serene forest of Bykovnia, told marked the edge of existence. Ukraine has managed not a stone's throw from Kiev. Mainly pine forest, with luxuri­ only to avoid bloodshed on its territory, it has made steps ous ferns underfoot that Lina Kostenko, a poet of the 1960s, toward enabling the grass-roots creation of a civil society likened to birds ready to fly, in pre-Chernobyl days the composed of many diverse parts. No individual possesses prime site for mushroom picking, it had been— from 1934 only one exclusive identity; rather their identities flow freely through 1936—the site of executions and shallow burials. into many spheres and from one sphere to another depend­ Today, people tie hand-lettered signs of names of those they ing on the function and interests of the time. Ukrainians know had been killed, and those whose fate, after their have not articulated this, but neither do we, unless we arrest, is not known. The homeliness of the signs reminds especially think about it. me of the memorial quilts exhibited for the victims of AIDS. One vivid picture remains with me. One spring day, on Today, each village, each town, especially in the Carpathian my way to a meeting at the Academy, I pass the square mountains where the struggle against Stalin was armed where Lenin's statue used to loom, with the Stalinist Hotel through the first years of the 1950s, is erecting memorial Moscow as a background. Today various commercial banks burial mounds for the known and unknown dead, as if rent the podium for their billboards; in the shade, would-be those lumps of land had some transcendent power to pre­ capitalists iron out their deals. I am musing on the irony of serve the memory of the dead. The burial mounds that the symbolism when from below—Independence Square moved me most were those hidden from view on the edge (nee the Square of the October Revolution)— comes the of the southern steppe that is kept as a preserve. Four huge clear, clean trumpet sound of "America the Beautiful." mounds, each topped with a massive fertility goddess, The melody brings smiles to the midday crowd. □ remain from prehistoric times, mute reminders of an indige­ nous population of pre-Christian period. The wildlife pre­ serve with zebras and gnus is near the territory to which Martha Bohachevsky Chomiak, a program officer in the Division Catherine the Great, or the Second, as she is known in these o f Research Programs, spent a year in Ukraine on a Fulbright parts, exiled the last free cossacks, permitting them to settle, Fellowship teaching at Kiev University.

34 MAY/JUNE 1994 Calendar M A Y ♦ J U N E BY STEVEN SNODGRASS

Johann Sebastian Bach's Leipzig years will be the focus of an exhibition and public conversations, collectively entitled "Bach's World," which will be offered in con­ junction with the Bach Aria Group Association's June festival at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum for Children will open "Growing Up" on June 24. Designed to depict the world from a child's perspective, the exhibition will explore, from Delaware Valley and inter­ "Urban Revisions: Current Projects for the Public Realm" goes on exhibit in national standpoints, how mid-May at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The exhibition children mature culturally surveys urban planning and design projects created within the last five years and socially. that offer alternatives to traditional city building, among them Connecticut's Farmington Canal Greenway, Los Angeles's Uhuru Gardens, and St. Louis's Grand Center theater district projects. —Photo by WHYY-TV Olshaker, Mark by —Photo Author David Macaulay will host and narrate Roman City, which uses animated and The Pierpont live-action footage to explore the foundation Morgan and evolution of an agricultural and mercan­ Library in New tile settlement typical of those established in York City will Julius Caesar's conquered lands. The film present an airs on public television May 8. exhibition of medieval Armenian art and culture from May 4 through August 7. "Treasures in Heaven: Armenian Illuminated Manuscripts" will feature tenth- through eighteenth-century Armenian Gospel Books.

HUMANITIES 35 Continued from page 6 maybe this is the meaning of the Hackney: I like that line also. other hand, the other branch, is that whole poem, that is: "Does man love you are writing because of some inner Art? Man visits Art, but squirms." Is s: Et cetera, et cetera. Does vision, some compulsion to express that about the function of art in life, that help? your own ideas. It really comes from and what is the function of art? within, and has very little to do with Hackney: It does indeed, but now what effects those words have on who­ s: Well, you know the occasion bring it back to the rest of your ever happens to read it. Is that a fair was the unveiling of the Chicago poetry. As you're writing, are you sort of division, or do those things Picasso here. Does man love art? Man consciously trying to make people actually go together? visits art. (I wish we could find a squirm on occasion? )oks: Well, I don't give myself any Brooks: Oh no, I never sit obligations when I'm writing. down and say "I am going to make people squirm." Hackney: That's interesting. First of all, I'm excited about Brooks: In this little book, Children something before I begin to Coming Home, I have a poem called write. And then I just put "Uncle Seagram," featuring a little down on the paper what­ five-year-old boy named Merle. And I ever comes—that's the H enry Blakely II and didn't say when I came to write this beginning. But I believe in a poem, well everybody is talking about lot of revision. Gwendolyn Brooks with child abuse, therefore I shall write a Hackney: Then you work poem about child abuse. What I their daughter Nora; 1961 and work on it. wanted to do was to present a little boy, in this case a little boy from the s: Yes, yes. Everything inner city—which is a phrase I hate— I've written, no matter how but any child might be saying this. simple it may sound, has Hackney: Yes. been agonized over; and I like to say that writing oks: But that, too, is not something

—Courtesy of Nora Brooks Blakely poetry is delicious agony— that I told myself. I'm going to read delicious agony. this very quickly. word that meant man and woman. If Hackney: It is. But what about the voy­ My uncle likes me too much. you ever come up with one, let me age, the line about art sending people know.) Does man love art? Well you on voyages. I am five and a half years old, see, Chicago people had been saying s Don't you consider it that and in kindergarten. such horrible things about this piece yourself? In kindergarten everything is of art, and somebody said that it had clean. always been known that Picasso Hackney: Absolutely. hated Chicago— s The enjoyment of art! The My uncle is six feet tall with Hackney: That's right. practice of art! Both are voyages. seven bumps on his chin. My uncle is six feet tall, and he >oks: — and that he had chosen this Hackney: Indeed, it opens up new stumbles. way of expressing his contempt. Other vistas and makes people look at He stumbles because of his people were saying that they would things in a slightly different way, if Wonderful Medicine have preferred a statue of Ernie Banks it's successful. Are you, as you write, packed in his pocket all times. to this thing. So, in sort of mock exas­ consciously aware of that effect on peration, I'm saying, the reader? Family is ma and pa and my uncle, Does man love Art? Man visits Art, three brothers, three sisters, s You know, I don't do all of and me. but squirms. this very conscious speculating as I'm Art hurts. Art urges voyages— writing. I'm just anxious to get the Every night at my house we play verse arrangement down, and then to checkers and dominoes. I love that line because I think it is true. ask myself over and over, is this really My uncle sits close. Hackney: It is absolutely right. what I want to say. I don't want to There aren't any shoes or socks imitate anyone else; I have a lot of Brooks: on his feet. admirations, but I don't want to sound —and it is easier to stay at home, Under the table a big toe tickles like any of them. the nice beer ready. my ankle. In commonrooms Hackney: Let me pose a choice Under the oilcloth his thin knee we belch, or sniff, or scratch. between two different branches. One, beats into mine. Are raw. in which you are writing as a poet And mashes. And mashes. speaking to an audience and quite But we must cook ourselves and aware of your obligation, your social When we look at TV style ourselves.... obligation if you will, as a poet. On the my uncle picks me to sit on his lap.

36 MAY/JUNE 1994 As I sit, he gets hard in the middle. loving themselves and having some Brooks: But you know, that is I squirm, but he keeps me, and kind of accented family feeling. It was absolutely not true. kisses my ear. a very exciting time. I know that it's Hackney: Thank you. the custom now to laugh at the late I am not even a girl. sixties, but there were good positives Brooks: Many of the poems that I'm there, and I think most of us are better reading on stages now come from my Once, when I went to the for those that were. very first book, and are considered bathroom, "social." I dread saying political. Hackney: I think you're right. It had a my uncle noticed, came in, shut bright side and a dark side. And the Hackney: But it is there. the door, bright side undoubtedly outweighed put his long white tongue in my Brooks: Yes, I think so. I've always had the dark side. But the dark side ear, a—what do you want to call it?—social was there. and whispered "We're Best feeling, I've always felt for people. Friends, and Family, Brooks: Well, certainly I'm going to Hackney: That is very much in your and we know how to keep Secrets." thank you for saying "dark" side. poetry, and I suppose that is one of the (Laughter). reasons that people think that one of My uncle likes me too much. I am Hackney: Okay. the continuing themes in your poetry worried. is humanity, or caring. Brooks: But you keep reading "the I do not like my uncle anymore. black side." Have you ever stopped to Brooks: Good, good. look in the dictionary for the defini­ Hackney: Which you would like, Well, when writing that I just tried to tion of Black and Blackness. would you not? feel how a little boy of five might feel in Hackney: I have done that such a situation. Although we come in Brooks: Yes, I do. actually, yes. different sizes, we are capable of feel­ Hackney: The other thing one hears is ing for each other, and as each other. Brooks: Terrible. Anyway, I got that it is also heroic. I'm a historian so involved with young Black people. I Hackney: That's right. When I read I'm not quite sure in what ways liter­ started a workshop—a writing work­ that I squirmed. ary scholars use the word "heroic," shop—for some youngsters that I but I think what is meant is not simply Brooks: Well, good! I read it in lots of met through Oscar Brown, Jr. that you write about heroes but that high schools and colleges, and even Ever heard of him? you are after very large themes, on a elementary schools. And almost Hackney: Yes. grand scale, especially in your work always, some child will say to me, most recently. Is that a fair statement? "That's going on in my family," or Brooks: He had created a very won­ "That has happened in my family." So derful show out of the talents of these Brooks: Well, most of the people who of course I refer them to their teachers young Blacks who called themselves use that word when they're talking for possible assistance. the Blackstone Rangers. This show about me—forgive me for seeming to was very well received here in put this little halo around my head— Hackney: That's right. But that just Chicago until the authorities decided are speaking of me as heroic. comes out of your success when you sit it was not a good thing that it was so down to write, rather than the newspa­ Hackney: Yes. popular, and shut it down. But there per and some sense of what social issue were some dancers and singers who Brooks: I'm not going to claim you should be writing about. wrote also, and I started a workshop heroism. Brooks: Or a too present feeling of for them. That is how I got whatever social obligation. I like that phrase. reputation I still have as a red-hot revolutionary. I Hackney: You mentioned earlier the know that sounds ridicu­ late 1960s and the rambunctious youth lous to you, but... in the movement. It was a particular time in our history, and some people Hackney: No, I think there writing biographical sketches of you is, in fact, a very strong have pointed to the second Fisk writ­ sense of social commit­ ers conference in 1967 as a turning ment running all the way point for you. Is that a fair assessment? through your poetry, or Brooks Have I ever had an interview sense of injustice that is in which that question was not asked? there. The reason I ask the It certainly was a very special time question is this notion that in my life, when I suppose you've your poetry before 1967 is read that I went to Fisk University and descriptive of the black got my first taste of what was happen­ experience but not alert to ing among the young Black people of the injustice, whereas after­ that time. They were unwilling to be wards it is committed, integrated, they were interested in more activist....

—Courtesy of Nora Brooks Blakely

HUMANITIES 37 Hackney: But there is this poem, world as a garden of varying flowers. this is one of the worst of times for W innie.... Personally, I would not prefer a world Black and White relations. of red roses only. Of white lilies only. oks: Yes, it's one I really like. Hackney: In America? Of yellow dandelions, only. Of purple Hackney: That is heroic in its theme, is violets, of black orchids, only. Of course s: Well, anywhere. Listen to it not? I wish my people had not been ripped what Vladimir Zhirinovsky is saying. oks: Yes, yes. I don't know what from Africa, hauled over here in layers Hackney: That's frightening. you think of Winnie Mandela, but I of chained slime, but even if I lived in a s: Yes, it is frightening. I have always considered her very country of solid Black, I guarantee that don't think he's being taken strong and properly called heroic. She it would give me pleasure to under­ seriously enough. goes up and down in the public favor. stand that, in the world there existed Right now she's coming back up other colors, other varieties, enjoying Hackney: Probably not. And there are again. I claim "heroism" for her. the fresh air I enjoy, and understanding people in the United States who echo

Gwendolyn Brooks and her

husband, Henry Blakely, at the

dedication of Gwendolyn Brooks

Junior High School in Harvey,

Illinois, November 24,1981.

—Courtesy of Nora Brooks Blakely

Hackney: Would your poem be differ­ that there was empathy, that there was him. Despite that, do you think we ent now if you wrote it knowing what the possibility of ultimate commerce." will be able to work through that to you know now? identifying some common ground Hackney: That's wonderful. So you for Americans? Brooks: I've never met her, but I feel relish the diversity that one finds in the that I came so close to nailing her world, and even in the United States. >oks: Yes, I think so. But I can't give down in that little book, that I feel I you a date on it. Brooks: Yes. don't want to meet her. I want to Hackney: That's true. Let me press believe that she is everything that I've Hackney: Are you optimistic about you a little bit more on the variety of put in that long poem. the future? flowers that you enjoy in the human Hackney: Yes, yes. s: Yes, I am an optimistic per­ garden. If they are to thrive together in this garden, do they need not only to Brooks: You mentioned humanitari- son. I am optimistic. There are so be different and therefore lively, but anism. I do have this little piece called many excellences. And so much real also to have something that they share, "Humanitarianism." It begins: love in the world. I have observed this some commitment to each other? Or "Humanitarianism: of course we over and over again, and even in these some common values? should love all the people in the world. ticklish times, I am observing it. So I Of course we should be humanitarian. am optimistic, but my eyes are not

38 MAY/JUNE 1994 Continued from page 9 make-up assistant for The Women's National Magazine. Then, bildungsroman retains an episodic structure that would in the Mecca Building, a formerly grand apartment complex lend itself to film. In recent years it has been given critical that had deteriorated into a slum dwelling, she worked for attention, particularly by black feminists. Themes of black- four "horrible" months as secretary to a spiritual adviser and-tan, black-and-white, economic hardship, female who sold lucky numbers and dependence, and muted and "magic potions." Impressions outright defiance lattice the from the indelible experience personal narrative. vivify the setting of In the The Bean Eaters (1960) Mecca, recalling Brooks's invo­ Of course, to be sounds the righteous thunder cation of Walt Whitman's liter­ of the Civil Rights movement. ary summons to "vivify the on/thing in this world Regarding the book's mixed contemporary fact." reception, due to her "forsak­ At any period, a survey of ing lyricism for polemics," Brooks's works will yield her as it is ‘socially’ Brooks observed years later in dominant social concerns, a Black Books Bulletin inter­ ranging from war and peace, constructed, is ‘political.’ view with Haki R. Madhubuti the Civil Rights movement, the (then don 1. lee), "To be Black Black Rebellion, a sense of is political." She further African heritage, and the wel­ noted, in a marginal comment fare of women and children, to to me on my Gwendolyn Brooks the need for courage and resis­ manuscript, "Of course, to be tance. Soren Kierkegaard's anything in this world as it is dictum, "Purity of heart is to 'socially' constructed, is will one thing," applies here. 'political.'" The book's chal­ For Brooks, that underlying, coherent impulse is caritas, lenging current topics include school integration in Little nourished by a sense of African American identity and a Rock, Arkansas, housing integration, the lynching of vivid sense of the Black Nation as an extension of the black Emmett Till in Mississippi, Black pride, and the needs of family. Caritas translates Brooks's humane vision into a women and children. Selected Poems (1963) includes new heroic voice, one bearing its own prosodic strength and works, among them "Riders to the Blood-red Wrath," a articulating the needs of the black community for pride, tribute to the Freedom Riders. liberty, and leadership. In 1967, at the Second Fisk University Writers' Conference Those major themes distinctly register in Brooks's first in Nashville, Brooks met the artistic resonance of the Black book, A Street in Bronzeville, which offers a series of Rebellion: the Black Arts Movement and its founder, Amiri vignettes and interpretations of black life. The poet coun­ Baraka (then LeRoi Jones). Although Brooks's work had terpoints her humane conceptions of the entrapments of always been vitally focused, the experience she describes in daily existence with memorable portraits: "Negro Hero," her autobiography resembles an epiphany, comparable to "The Sundays of Satin-Legs Smith," "Ballad of Pearl May Wordsworth's on Mount Snowdon in The Prelude (Book Lee," "Queen of the Blues," and "Hattie Scott." She con­ XIV), or Alfred's on the balcony in "In the Mecca." Upon fronts what Arthur P. Davis refers to as the "black-and-tan" returning home, she started a workshop for the Blackstone motif in her work, i.e., the valuing of lightness among Rangers, a teenaged Chicago gang, and gave Dudley Ran­ blacks. The book demonstrates Brooks's comprehensive dall permission to publish "The Wall" as a broadside. The sensibility and technical skill (see especially the antiwar following year, he published the memorial broadside, sonnet sequence "Gay Chaps at the Bar"), and her social "Martin Luther King, Jr.," written on April 4, the day of the identity. Like Langston Hughes, she is able to adapt con­ assassination, and appearing April 5 on the front page of ventional forms on her way to developing the new. the Chicago Sun-Times. Annie Allen (1949), Brooks's antiromantic poem sequence In the Mecca (1968) became her "brief epic" (as John Mil­ about a young black woman's prewar illusions and post­ ton referred to Paradise Regain'd). Her jacket statement war realities, again identifies the pressures of daily life. The reads, "I was to be a Watchful Eye, a Tuned Ear, a Super- centerpiece is "The Anniad," its mock heroic second sec­ Reporter." The Super-Reporter, whom Brooks conceives as tion; the closing "Womanhood" poems begin with a bril­ one who is "just supremely accurate," suggests quasi-divine liant sonnet sequence, "the children of the poor," and reportage, the quest foreshadowed in the need for a portray a brave, yet circumspect Annie, impelled by moth­ "Teller" in "One wants a Teller in a time like this" (Annie erhood, who looks out from her own problems toward a Allen), and the prophetic role confirmed in later works, world she would like to reform. Her psychic growth and such as "In Montgomery" (1971), the major piece that intro­ sturdy triumph inspired poet Nikki Giovanni to recognize duces her "verse journalism." "In the Mecca", Brooks's Annie as "my mother." longest single work in the book, recounts the tragic search The manuscript history of Maud Martha (1953), with its of a mother for her child. The woman's frantic pilgrimage metamorphoses and revisions, attests to the poet's persever­ through the building reveals a failed socioeconomic sys­ ance. An unpretentious masterpiece, this impressionistic tem, a failed art, a failed religion, and their spawn of

HUMANITIES 39 isolation and rage. A want of caritas, Brooks's major theme, preceded her arrival; when she appeared, she received a mirrors deficiencies of the white environment and reflects standing ovation. People responded to whatever she read or the Mecca as a microcosm. The multiple embedding of said; a kind of dialogue was in progress, almost as if a bril­ poetic forms and their orchestration open freely to content liant friend—or mother—had come to visit students at their and convey a liberation. The school. What I heard, moreover, poet calls for a "new art and in her musical cadences was a anthem" that will redeem grief spiritual and prosodic power, a with, as expressed by one of poetry of humane vision and her characters, "an essential The Black poet has leadership. With meticulous sanity, black and electric." aptness it combined the energy The epilogic poems of "After of African drums, the rhythms Mecca" offer tributes, hope, the American experience of black music, its blues and and direction. The two jazz, the black sermon, the "Sermon(s) on the Warpland" and also has the Black Anglo-Saxon alliterative poetic, proclaim her "grand heroic" the ballad, and the sonnet, and style (to borrow a modifier experience; so is very rich. forged something new. Later on from Matthew Arnold), as dis­ I would account the presences tinguished from the "plain of Walt Whitman and Emily heroic" of some later works, Dickinson, a comprehension of and adapt the sermon, particu­ modern poetry from Langston larly in the chanted genre, as Hughes and Anne Spencer to an art form. As a stylistic term, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent "grand heroic" indicates use of Millay, and T. S. Eliot. As imperatives, parallel construc­ Brooks herself says: "The Black tions, redundant phrasing, metaphor and metonymy, and poet has the American experience and also has the Black biblical modes. From the sonnet, Brooks advances to a experience; so is very rich." And while addressing herself "tom-tom hearted" present. "My people, black and black, primarily to blacks, she insists, "I know that the black revile the River. / Say that the River turns, and turn the emphasis must be, not against white, but FOR black." She has River," counsels the First Sermon. The Second Sermon com­ left the sometimes elliptical mode of earlier work for one that mands, "This is the urgency: Live!... Conduct your bloom­ she calls "clarifying, not 'simple.'" Aiming to "call" black ing in the noise and whip of the whirlwind." people to unity and pride, she has raised the communicative After In the Mecca, Brooks aimed to support the black power of poetry to the rhetoric of music. press. Several companies published her work; she con­ Although in 1968 James N. Johnson, reviewing In the tributed financially to them. Dudley Randall's Broadside Mecca for Ramparts, wrote, "No white poet of her quality Press published Riot (1969), Family Pictures (1970), Alone- is so undervalued, so unpardonably unread," and the ness (1971), Report from Part One (1972), and Beckonings New York Times last reviewed one of her books in Febru­ (1975); Haki R. Madhubuti's Third World Press pub­ ary 1973 (Toni Cade Bambara's excellent piece on Report lished The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves (1974) and To Dis­ from Part One), Brooks has become the most widely hon­ embark (1981). In the eighties, she settled on The David ored poet in the United States. When in 19741 began my Company, named after her late father, and began pub­ study of her work, there was not a single volume about lishing her own works: Primer for Blacks and Young Poet's her; now there are several, in addition to a proliferation of Primer (1980), Very Young Poets (1983); The Near-Johannes­ essays and her numerous appearances in anthologies. She burg Boy and Other Poems (1986); Gottschalk and the Grande is the first black to win a Pulitzer Prize of any kind. Tarantelle (1988). With Blacks (1987), she put her unavail­ Indeed, until its conferral in May 1950, Brooks remarks able works back into print. Her publishing gesture was as that no black had won any of the significant awards of feminist as it was black, bespeaking dignity and emanci­ our time. There had been no black Drama Critics' Circle pation. She has recently resumed publishing with Mad­ Award, no black National Book Award, no black Nobel hubuti's Third World Press, which has reissued Blacks, Prize (until June 1950, when Ralph Bunche won the Nobel Maud Martha, and five other works, but the poet retains Peace Prize ). Brooks has received two Guggenheim fel­ her prerogative to bring out some of her own poetry, and lowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters has done so with Children Coming Home (1991). Her itiner­ Award in literature, and the first Kuumba Liberation ary of readings and workshops, arranged by her agent Award. She was the first black woman to receive the Shel­ and friend Beryl Zitch, director of The Contemporary ley Memorial Award and the Frost Medal of the Poetry Forum, continues unabated. The poet has also traveled to Society of America. She was the first black woman to be Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania in Africa, and to England, appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Con­ France, Russia, and Canada. gress, and the last to be so designated before the title was My first attendance at a Brooks reading took place in 1971 changed to Poet Laureate, and also first to be elected to at the City College of New York, where she was teaching as the National Institute of Arts and Letters, (thirty-two a distinguished professor of the arts. A current of excitement years after the election of W. E. B. Du Bois, the first black.)

40 MAY/JUNE 1994 Inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1988, Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and in the same year she was notified of a Senior Fellowship Creative Writing. in Literature grant from the National Endowment for the In 1821, Thomas De Quincey wrote of the "Literature of Arts in recognition, as an official put it, of "the spirit of Knowledge and Literature of Power": The function of the the work and life of the first was to teach, of the sec­ author." She has more than ond, to move. He compared seventy honorary doctorates. the former to a rudder, the lat­ In the tradition of her youth­ ter, to an oar or sail, stirring the ful experience in which poor We are each reader "to the higher under­ strangers were fed at the family standing or reason, but always table, Brooks's generosity is through affections of pleasure legendary. As Poet Laureate of other’s business. / We and sympathy." A fine recent Illinois, she established annual poem epitomizes Brooks's Poet Laureate Awards (this are each other’s ability to animate the reader/ year will be their twenty-fifth listener's sympathetic under­ anniversary), primarily for the magnitude and bond. standing. In "An Old Black elementary and high school Woman, Homeless and students of Illinois. She contin­ Indistinct," having described ually endows many other how "Your every day is a prizes. Encouraging writing in pilgrimage. / A blue hubbub," schools, in prisons, in her vicin­ and what it is like to face the ity, and wherever she travels, street, "your incessant enemy," she has probably done more avoided by passers-by, like than anyone to promote the the rich girl who "sees you writing of poetry throughout the United States. not, who sees you very well," Brooks concludes: Brooks's oeuvre reflects her concern with the young. Poems such as the famous "We Real Cool" in The Bean Black old woman, homeless, indistinct— Eaters and "Boys. Black" in Beckonings, books such as Your last and least adventure is Review. Bronzeville Boys and Girls, The Tiger Who Wore White Folks used to celebrate your birthday! Gloves, Young Poet's Primer, Very Young Poets, and Chil­ dren Coming Home attest to her involvement. More than Folks used to say "She's such a pretty little thing!" mere objects of sentiment, children embody the future, Folks used to say "She draws such handsome horses, which for Brooks incorporates present responsibilities. cows and houses." Bronzeville Boys and Girls And yet the span from (1956) to Folks used to say "That child is going far."1 Children Coming Home is less a bridge than a chasm; the contrast is harsh. The Watchful Eye, caring yet unflinch­ These humble references image the tragic essence of life, ing, sees today's children in their context, and the vision the losses that nibble away at time and its core of hope. itself proclaims an emergency. Yet throughout her work, Often, as she does here, Brooks combines the literature of as in person, Brooks's wry humor and lively sense of knowledge with the literature of power. She fulfills the office life's absurdities fuel her optimism. Remedies are possi­ of Teacher, as William Wordsworth respectfully capitalized ble; she believes in growth and change at any age. The the word, and Dudley Randall acknowledged in his tribute adage "When handed a lemon, make lemonade" is one of "For Gwendolyn Brooks, Teacher." Instructing the sensibil­ her favored "life-lines." ity, her heart shares its illuminations. Her poems present "an In her closeness and accessibility to common life, poet essential sanity, black and electric." While our time of social and person seamlessly coincide. Not since the Fireside laxity and malaise narrows its band of exemplary figures, Poets of the American Civil War has one inspired so the ideals of virtue and communality diminish into wistful much personal affection. Having influenced, assisted, and exchanges with the past. And so we welcome this major supported the work of writers in and out of her work­ voice that affirms in "Paul Robeson," "We are each other's shops—one can only begin the distinguished list with business. / We are each other's magnitude and bond." Haki R. Madhubuti, Carolyn M. Rodgers, and the late Brooks is our national resource, our finest ore. □ Etheridge Knight—she is the subject of two tribute anthologies, To Gwen With Love (1971) and Say That the D. H. Melhem is the author o f Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry and River Turns: The Impact of Gwendolyn Brooks (1987). the Heroic Voice and Heroism in the New Black Poetry. Conferences at Colorado State and Chicago State Univer­ In 1980 Melhem received a $20,000 Endowment fellowship. sities have been devoted to her work. A Gwendolyn Brooks Cultural Center has been founded at Western Illinois University; a junior high school was named for her Note 1 "An Old Black Woman, Homeless and Indistinct," © 1993 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Quoted by permission. In Drumvoices Revue, (Fall-Winter 1992/1993), p. 120. in Harvey, Illinois; and Chicago State, where she retains a chair (a professorship named in her honor), houses the

HUMANITIES 41 Continued from page 13 that were the most impactful for me poem," she observes. "This poem "I knew that my students weren't were the ones that exhibited pain." should be incorporated into a group very familiar with her," Francis says. "The Life of Lincoln West/' the story guidance class required for every "They knew of her name, but I had of the "Ugliest little boy/that every­ high-schooler. A guided discussion of students prior to her visit who came to one ever saw," struck Adams the most this poem would so sensitize them to argue with me that this woman was deeply. As a counselor, she explains, the cruel consequences of neglecting not still alive, that she was not still in she sees many children with problems children that possibly many future the city and not still teaching, because stemming from their physical appear­ tragedies could be avoided." they had heard her name for so long. ance and lack of self-esteem. Mary Adams and her fellow stu­ She's overlooked. She doesn't receive Likewise, this poem deeply touched dents of Brooks found lessons to take the recognition she should in this city. English teacher Shirley Honeywood, home in the poet's art and in her life. Public school children don't know who notes, "It addresses a problem "There is definitely a lesson for who this person is. They don't associ­ that stubbornly persists inside and young people to derive from her ate the name with someone who is outside of the African-American biography," Adams states. "When I very much active. Yet she is very con­ race. It reminds me to be sensitive to see students becoming frustrated or cerned about the youth, about young those I teach." discouraged and feel that the strug­ writers. She holds workshops specifi­ Another poem with a direct impact gle is all in vain, I would like to rec­ cally for young people. And she's poet was "The Murder," a poem from 1945. ommend to them Gwendolyn laureate of this state." It was reprinted in the 1991 collection Brooks's poem 'To Black Women.' It So, Francis was surprised and Blacks, and with good reason. It has delighted by the reaction of the stu­ is great for young men as well. They the immediacy of a headline from dents when Brooks came to Dunbar should read the entire poem, but the today's Chicago Tribune. for the first time. "The moment she first stanza delivers the message: got into the building even the teachers This is where poor Percy died, began coming out of the woodwork Sisters Short of the age of one. asking for autographs and talking to where there is cold silence— His brother Brucie, with a grin, her." And when she got into the audi­ no hallelujahs, no hurrahs at all, Burned him up for fun. torium, addressing an audience that no handshakes, nearly filled the 1,600-seat hall, the no neon red or blue, no smiling No doubt, poor Percy watched the students reacted the same way. "They faces— fire were really impressed with her read­ prevail." Chew on his baby dress ings and that her work was so contem­ With sweet delight, enjoying too porary about African Americans, HOW IT CAME TO BE His brother's happiness. things they could relate to. Some of The project was conceived and coor­ them had references directly to dinated by Pamela York Francis, an No doubt, poor Percy looked Chicago, so that made it even closer to English teacher at Dunbar for six around them," Francis remembers. years. In 1991 and 1992, she took two And wondered at the heat, When the NEH project was courses taught by Brooks and Mad­ Was worried, wanted Mother, approved, Francis sought a broad Who gossiped down the street. hubuti at Chicago State University— range of perspectives from the partici­ a poetry writing course and a compre­ pants. "I wanted to draw teachers No doubt, poor shrieking Percy died hensive course on Brooks. from a variety of curriculum areas, Loving Brucie still, Francis's graduate work with Brooks and we were able to get a broad cross- Who could, with clean and open eye, sparked her desire to share Brooks not section. The majority of teachers were Thoughtfully kill. only with her students at Dunbar but from the English department, but we with as many students as possible and had a physical education teacher, a Brucie has no playmates now. with other teachers as well. She felt that science teacher, a counselor, and His mother mourns his lack. Brooks's life and poetry, set so close to teachers from outside of Dunbar, both Brucie keeps on asking, "When home and filled with themes and char­ elementary and high school." Is Percy cornin' back?" acters familiar to them, even when One intent of the project was to take dating back half a century, would have Gwendolyn Brooks back to their class­ After the class's discussion of this a powerful impact. She applied to the rooms. Dunbar is a special school in poem, Mary Adams recalls, it took NEH for a Masterworks Project grant the Chicago Public Schools system, a her days to stop thinking about the and at the same time, invited Brooks to vocational school devoted more than poem. "As a counselor, I have seen so come to Dunbar in May 1992 to speak others to addressing the practical much abuse and neglect of children to the ninth-grade class and other working needs of its students. There­ that it all came home to me in this students at an assembly. fore, the utility of poetry might seems

42 MAY/JUNE 1994 unlikely to many of the teachers and to Even chemistry teacher Sharon their students. Yet the teachers in their Alvarado found a connection between class presentation assignments—their poetry and science, with a lesson plan lesson plans for a class—found ways that had pupils express chemical reac­ of carrying Gwendolyn Brooks into tions in poetic form. Alvarado and her their classrooms. students would first read an assort­ Valerie Flemings, a radio communi­ ment of Brooks's early poetry, particu­ cations instructor planned that stu­ larly those describing people and dents would create and write places in her life, as well as passages vignettes about Gwendolyn Brooks for from her autobiography describing Black History Month. how she wrote poems daily and found Ola Griffin, who teaches business poetry in everything around her. Then, and computer applications courses, Alvarado explains, "pupils will write sees direct benefits to exposing her very short poems describing how a students to Brooks's poetry. "Their shiny metal being reacted with an acid understanding and mastery of English produces a gas. Next, they will do an as well as poetry is essential. By recit­ experiment or watch a demonstration ing and analyzing poetry in the class­ in which different metals react with an room setting, it improves their assortment of acids and produce a "I’d rather be reading knowledge of interpretation in differ­ variety of gases. They will write their Humanities." ent job settings. descriptions, explanations, and Join the growing number of Humanities "Since listening is a critical tool in conclusions in the form of poetry." subscribers today, and get a year’s business, the use of poetry will help as subscription (six bimonthly issues) for a communication tool." Among her A ROLE MODEL only $13 or two years for only $26. goals in her lesson plan: The impact of bringing Gwendolyn Brooks into this one school is clearly • To show how analyzing poetry evident. "She has influenced all of Company or Individual name will help in work situations. society through the broad scope and realistic themes of her writings," says • To show its use in advertising and Floyd Banks, Dunbar's principal. "She Address commercials. has enlightened all of us through her truthful and vivid portrayals of life, as • To develop good speaking skills. presented in her writings. "Her works should be studied in • To learn how to express oneself schools because she is a good, positive clearly so an employer and role model for our youth. She is a con­ City, State, ZIP code co-workers can understand the temporary person, successful and message being sent. inspirational. Youth, and adults, can learn from her, and benefit from being Daytime phone, including area code • To learn to deliver structured exposed to her works. Her expertise messages. in language allows her to powerfully ]] Check payable to the Superintendent of and accurately portray the common Documents • To regulate the tone of one's voice man, ordinary lifestyles, and every­ in different situations. | | GPO deposit account day people." □ Q VISA or MasterCard • To develop the process of exchanging information, ideas and feelings. Matthew Kiell is a writer based in Account no./Expiration date Chicago. • To develop a feeling for listening Signature 5/94 with empathy and making a good judgment in different job Paul Laurence Dunbar High School NewOrders situations. received an $18,000 grant to conduct a Superintendent of Documents masterwork study of Gwendolyn Brooks's P.O.Box371954 • To use poetry skills to improve poetry from Elementary and Secondary Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 their understanding of business Education in the Humanities of the or FAX (202) 512-2233 messages. Division of Education Programs. orderprocessingcode: ______5494

HUMANITIES 43 In Focus BY ELIZABETH HORNE

film, novels, and history have depicted it." Gary Holthaus Holthaus also teaches and writes poetry. The author of the poetry col­ Challenging lections Unexpected Manna and Circling Back calls poetry great sport. Writing Popular Myths about private events, he loves the technical and emotional freedom in poetry. "You can put funny, different- length lines down on the page and nobody objects, because that's the way they're supposed to be," he says. ARY HOLTHAUS DRAFTED nized but one or two. Then, when they Holthaus's poetical reputation Alaska's bilingual education start reading that poetry and discover extends as far as Iraq. From 1979 to act, turned a Native American that that's really good literature, 1990 the Iraqi embassy invited him to dropout rate of 95 percent into a they're astonished," he remarks. Since read his poems at Al-Mirbed, an inter­ retention rate of over 90 percent at many of his students say they want to national annual poetry festival in Alaska Methodist University, and live in the West but have little knowl­ Baghdad. In describing the experience read his own poetry at an interna­ edge of its history and literature, he noted, "There was a different atti­ tional festival in Iraq. Holthaus plans to establish an Ameri­ tude toward poetry, even on the street, Yet he calls himself an amateur prac­ can West major. than there has ever been here. Every­ titioner of the humanities. Unlike his students, Holthaus dis­ In 1991, after almost twenty years as covered western American literature body knew about Al-Mirbed. It was executive director of the Alaska not in college but by accident. "I all over Arab radio and television ten, Humanities Forum, Holthaus became picked up what I thought was some twelve hours a day." the director of the Center of the Amer­ escapist Sunday night book. It looked In his essays he addresses such pub­ ican West and a professor of western like a cowboy book, and it was called lic issues as bilingualism in the Alaska American literature at the University Riders of Judgment, which is certainly a schools and the role of the humanities of Colorado, Boulder. The center, cowboy book title. When I started to in education, analytical thinking, and established in 1989 to explore western read it I thought 'Holy smoke! This cultural values. His essay, "Notes on issues, sponsors an annual sympo­ isn't a cowboy book. This is litera­ the Humanities and Education," sium, a lecture series, and other con­ ture!"' This Frederick Manfred novel defines the humanities as "a process, a ferences and seminars for those on and N. Scott Momaday's House Made way of thinking about things, rather campus and in the region. of Dawn inspired Holthaus's love of One of the aims of the center is to western American literature. than as a set of facts. Seneca writes in provide a forum for Native American The Momaday novel was one of the one of his letters, 'I don't care for the themes. Last year, it sponsored a books that thirty secondary history kind of mathematics that can measure meeting between tribal and academic and literature teachers from the Rocky my acres and tell me exactly how historians. Holthaus had noticed that Mountain West read in an NEH- much land I have but can't tell me tribal historians, who live on reserva­ funded, four-week summer institute how much is enough.' When we go tions, were isolated from academic at the center, codirected by Holthaus beyond identifying an event and ones. "None of the tribal historians at and historian James Giese. Teachers reflect on what that event might this meeting had ever met another participated in discussions, visited his­ mean," Holthaus continues, "then we tribal historian, so they never had a torical sites and museums, and get into the humanities." chance to talk shop. It was an opportu­ researched teaching units and lesson With a batchelor of arts in English nity to do that, as well as talk to acade­ plans on the American West. Holthaus from Cornell College in Iowa, a mas­ mics, and boy were they excited," coordinated content and field experi­ Holthaus says. ences and lectured on American west­ ter's degree in historical theology from As a professor serving in both ern fiction and poetry. Boston University, and a master of sci­ administrative and teaching positions Holthaus wanted to expose partici­ ence education degree from Western at the same time, he believes that "you pants to different views of the Ameri­ Montana College, the humanities is need to be reminded on a daily basis can West in order to challenge popular what Gary Holthaus enjoys most. "I that what universities are about is myths. People tend to see the historic love the humanities," he says. "What teaching and research." West as lone cowboys on the frontier, could be more important in my work?" Students often come to his classes but many cowboys had families, he not knowing much about western explains. "We hope to show them the American literature, he explains. West from a variety of perspectives so Elizabeth Horne was a 1993 summer "I threw the names of forty western they'll be able to view it more accu­ fellow in the Office of Publications and poets on the table, and nobody recog­ rately, as opposed to the way western Public Affairs.

44 MAY/JUNE 1994 HUMANITIES GUIDE ndependent research centers and Research and Exchanges Board, he various learned societies and pro­ completed the first increment of his Ifessional associations provide sup­ research, a study of the early Soviet port for humanities research and antireligious movements, as well as an access to important resources for schol­ Centers and exploration of ethnographic studies of arly study. To recognize their impor­ the Russian village conducted in the tance, the Endowment has for many 1920s. IREX arranged an affiliation years augmented existing research International for Husband with the Russian State grant programs administered by inde­ Humanities University, secured his pendent centers and other organiza­ access to the Central State Archive of tions. In recent years these activities Research the Russian Revolution and the Cen­ have been funded by the Division of tral State Historical Archive of the Research Programs through two pro­ USSR, and found him a reasonably grams, called Centers for Advanced priced apartment. "An IREX presence Study and International Research. Organizations in Moscow' has made a significant and Support for long-term residential positive difference in the lot of Ameri­ fellowships at independent centers for can researchers in Russia," he said. advanced study has been available to BY KENNETH KOLSON •Professor James Muldoon of Rut­ those centers maintaining humanities gers University-Camden spent seven fellowships programs supported by program that will bring under the months in residence at the John Carter their own or other private funds. same review' process applications with Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Centers conduct their own fellowship similar purposes— the expansion of Island, working on a book-length man­ competitions and select fellows in research opportunities for scholars. uscript entitled Spiritual Order from accordance with NEH guidelines. The consolidated program should Temporal Conquest: Juan de Soldrzano Some centers, such as the Newberry better serve both the needs of the Library or the Schomberg Center for Pereira and the Conquest o f the Neii' organizations and the scholars who Research in Black Culture, offer fellows World (University of Pennsylvania use their resources. access to rich archival collections. Other Press, forthcoming, 1994). Muldoon A few examples serve to demon­ fellowship programs, such as that of reports that he "benefited enormously strate the variety and significance of the National Humanities Center, are from the collegiality of the JCB." "For research grants offered by centers and best known for fostering a strong sense example," he explains, "conversations international research organizations: of scholarly community. American cen­ with Professor Karen Kuppermann, a •Professor Richard Waller of Buck- ters located abroad base fellowship leading colonial historian, gave me a nell University won an NEH fellow­ programs on important humanities better grasp of the ways Englishmen ship at the School of American resources and on opportunities for col­ understood the nature of conquest and Research for a project on the history legial exchange; they also offer scholars the ways English w'riters on expansion of the Maasai of East Africa from the assistance in securing government and conquest borrowed from Spanish middle of the nineteenth century to research permits or clearances. writers. She helped me to place the the 1930s. A major feature of his year Likewise, the International Research Spanish writer whose work interests in residence at the SAR in Santa Fe, program has assisted organizations me in a broader European context. according to Waller, w'as the interac­ that make awards to American schol­ A fellowship that did not require tion with other fellows. "The school ars through competitive selection pro­ residence at the JCB would not have takes trouble," he reports, "in match­ cedures. The grants enable American been as helpful to my work." ing scholars to bring about a conge­ scholars to conduct research in •Professor Timothy Mitchell, a polit­ nial and stimulating mix, and in this it selected areas abroad and to engage in ical scientist at New' York University, is extremely successful." Waller, a his­ collaborative work with foreign col­ describes the benefits accrued from his torian, added that working closely leagues. Awards have been made to NEH fellowship at the American with anthropologists "increased con­ organizations—such as the Interna­ Research Center in Egypt as the oppor­ siderably my understanding of their tional Research and Exchanges Board, tunity to "write several articles, to pub­ methodology and thought and of the the American Council of Learned Soci­ lish two books in Arabic translation, to concerns expressed in ethnographic eties, and the Committee for Scholarly meet other American scholars and a writing in a postmodern age." Communication with China— that large number of Egyptian scholars in have the demonstrated capacity to •In 1992-93, Professor William Hus­ my field, and to continue to improve plan and conduct competitive research band of Oregon State University spent my command of both written and grant programs on a national level. six months in Moscow conducting spoken Arabic." □ During fiscal year 1995 the Endow­ research on "Godless Communists: ment w'ill consolidate these two Atheism in State and Society in the programs into a single Centers and USSR, 1917-1945." During the tenure Kenneth Kolson is deputy to the director of International Research Organizations of his grant from the International the Division of Research Programs.

HUMANITIES 45 ■ Choice List of Outstanding Books and Nonprint Materials for recognition of qual­ ity scholarly publishing in all disciplines Young, Robert W. and William Morgan, Award Winners Sr. Analytical Lexicon of Navajo. ■ American Association of Publishers: Albuquerque: University of New Mexico R. R. Hawkins Award for best scholarly Press, 1993. book of 1992 ■ Columbia University: Bancroft Prize for Harley, J. B., and David Woodward, eds. distinguished works in American history The History of Cartography. Vol. 2, Book 1: and diplomacy, 1993 Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and Leffler, Melvyn P. A Preponderance of South Asian Societies. Chicago: University Power: National Security, the Truman of Chicago Press, 1992. EX Administration, and the Cold War. Stan­ ford: Stanford University Press, 1992. ■ American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages: ■ Hoover Presidential Library Associa­ Outstanding Translation Award, 1993 tion Herbert Hoover Book Award, 1992, Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary. for the best scholarly book on American Vol. 1: 1873-1876. Trans. Kenneth Lantz. history during President Hoover’s lifetime Evanston: Northwestern University Leffler, Melvyn P. A Preponderance of Press, 1993. LIBRIS Power: National Security, the Truman ■ American Historical Association, Administration, and the Cold War. Stan­ John K. Fairbank Prize, 1992 ford: Stanford University Press, 1992. Bernhardt, Kathryn. Rents, Taxes, and ■ International Congress on Women in Peasant Resistance: The Lower Yangzi Music/Pauline Alderman Prize First Region, 1840-1950. Stanford: Stanford Place Award, 1993 University Press, 1992. NEH Zaimont, Judith Lang, Jane Gottlieb, ■ American Historical Association, et al., eds. The Musical Woman. Vol. 3: Morris D. Forkosch Prize, 1992-93, for 1986-1990. Westport, CT: Greenwood the best book in English in the field of Press, 1991. British, British Imperial, or British Com­ ■ Library Journal: List of Best Books, 1992 monwealth history Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Black- Brenner, Robert. Merchants and Revo­ BOOKS mar. The Park and the People. Ithaca: lution: Commercial Change, Political Cornell University Press, 1992. Conflict, and London’s Overseas Traders, ■ Lionel Geiber Foundation of Toronto, 1550-1653. Princeton: Princeton PUBLISHED Canada, for nonfiction literary works of University Press, 1992. general subjects on international relations ■ American Historical Association, Leo RECENTLY Leffler, Melvyn P. A Preponderance of Gershoy Award, 1992-93, for an out­ Power: National Security, the Truman standing work written in English on any WITH NEH Administration, and the Cold War. Stan­ aspect of 17th- and 18th-Century Western ford: Stanford University Press, 1992. European history ■ Mary Washington College Center for Dewald, Jonathan. Aristocratic Experi­ SUPPORT Historic Preservation: Historic Preser­ ence and the Origins of Modern Culture: vation Book Prize, 1993 France, 1570-1715. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Black- mar. The Park and the People. Ithaca: ■ American Historical Association, Her­ Cornell University Press, 1992. bert Feis Award, 1992-93, for the best book, article/articles, or policy paper by a ■ Mississippi Library Association: public historian or an independent scholar Mississippi Authors Award for Nonfiction for 1992 Gelles, Edith B. Portia: The World of Abigail Adams. Bloomington: Indiana Ferris, William, and Charles Reagan University Press, 1992. Wilson, eds. Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North ■ American Historical Association and Carolina Press, 1989. the Society for History Education, ■ Modern Language Association, James Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Russell Lowell Prize, 1992-93 for out­ Award, 1992-93, to recognize excellence standing literary or linguistic study in teaching and knowledge of history Helgerson, Richard. Forms of Nation­ Davis, Natalie Zemon. Davis received a hood: The Elizabethan Writing of Eng­ Fellowship for Independent Study and Ebeling-Koning, Blanche T. Katherine land. Chicago: University of Chicago Research in 1981-1982 for her proposal, Anne Porter at One Hundred: New Press, 1993. “The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France.” Perspectives. College Park, MD: ■ Modern Language Association, James ■ American Historical Association, University of Maryland, 1991. Russell Lowell Prize (Honorable Men­ Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship ■ American Society of Composers, tion), 1992-93 for outstanding literary or Award, 1992-93, for a belief in the value Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP): linguistic study of the study of history and a commitment Deems Taylor Award, 1992 to teaching students regardless of age or Pratt, Mary Louise. Imperial Eyes: career goals Partch, Harry. Bitter Music: Collected Travel Writing and Transculturation. New York: Rutledge, 1992. Ebner, Michael H. Ebner received a Journals, Essays, Introductions, and Summer Stipend in 1982, another in 1993, Librettos. Ed. Thomas McGeary. Urbana: ■ National Book Award Finalists, 1993 a Fellowship for College Teachers and University of Illinois Press, 1991. Leach, William. Land of Desire: Mer­ Independent Scholars in 1983-84, and a ■ Anne Frank Special Recognition Prize, chants, Power, and the Rise of a New Travel to Collections Award in 1989. 1993, for work that exemplifies the spirit American Culture. New York: Pantheon ■ American Library Association, Rare and thought of Anne Frank Books, 1992. Books and Manuscripts, Katharine Tec, Nechama. Defiance: The Bielski Slotkin, Richard. Gunfighter Nation: The Kyes and Daniel J. Leab Award of Partisans. New York: Oxford University Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth-Century Excellence. Press. 1993. America. New York: Atheneum, 1992.

46 MAY/JUNE 1994 ■ National Book Critics Circle: Nominee ■ University of California Press: A Cen­ Benson, Timothy O. Expressionist Utopias: for award for criticism tennial Book, one of one hundred Paradise, Metropolis, and Architectural Fan­ Dizikes, John. Opera in America: A Cul­ distinguished books published between tasy. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County tural History. New Haven: Yale University 1990 and 1995, to mark the centennial of Museum of Art, 1993. Press, 1993. the press Buitron-Oliver, Diana. The Greek Miracle. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, ■ New York Times Book Review List of Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Trans. 1992. Notable Books of the Year, 1992 Jack Schmitt. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Campbell, Edward D.C., Jr., and Kym Rice White, Richard. “It’s Your Misfortune Before Freedom Came: African American and None of My Own”: A New History of ■ Vernacular Architecture Forum: Abbot Life in the Antebellum South. Richmond: Lowell Cummings Book Award, 1993 the American West. Norman: University Museum of the Confederacy and University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. Rosenzweig, Roy, and Elizabeth Black- Press of Virginia, 1991. mar. The Park and the People. Ithaca: ■ PEN Book-of-the-Month Club Transla­ Cooper, Wendy A. Classical Taste in Cornell University Press, 1992. tion Prize, 1993 America, 1800-1840. Baltimore: Baltimore Krasicki, Ignacy. The Adventures of ■ The Woodrow Wilson National Fellow­ Museum of Art, 1993. Nicholas Wisdom. Trans. Thomas H. ship Foundation, Hans Rosenhaupt Corbett, Katharine T., and Howard S. Hoisington. Evanston: Northwestern Memorial Book Award (Honorable Miller. Saint Louis in the Gilded Age. St. University Press, 1992. Mention), 1993, to honor the publication Louis: Missouri Historical Society Press, 1993. of a first book ■ Phi Beta Kappa, Christian Gauss Desai, Vishakha N., and Dariell Mason Award, 1993, in history Smith, Martha Nell. Rowing in Eden: Gods, Guardians and Lovers. Clifton. NJ: Rereading Emily Dickinson. Austin: Sundquist, Eric. To Wake the Nations: Grantha Corp., 1993. University of Texas Press, 1992. Race in the Making of American Litera­ Grierson, Roderick. Gates of Mystery: The ture. Cambridge: Harvard University Art of Holy Russia. Fort Worth: InterCultura, Press, 1993. Inc., 1993. ■ Reference Reviews, a British journal, for Goddard, Stephen H. Les Vingt and the best specialist reference work of 1991 Belgian Avant-Garde.Lawrence: University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art, 1992. Kashdan, Alexander P. and Mary-Alice Harris, Neil, Wim de Wit, James Gilbert, Talbot, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of and Robert Rydell. Grand Illusions: Byzantium. New York: Oxford University NEH-Funded Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893. Chicago: Press, 1991. Chicago Historical Society, 1993. ■ School of American Research: Library Exhibition Catalogues Jenkins, Donald, ed. The Floating World J. I. Staley Prize 1993, for the best work Doggett, Rachael, Monique Hulvey, and Revisited. Portland, OR: Portland Art being done in anthropology Julie Ainsworth, eds. New World of Museum, 1993. Price, Richard. Alabi’s World. Baltimore: Wonders: European Images of the Kim, Hongnam. Korean Arts of the 18th Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Americas, 1492-1700. Seattle: University Century: Splendor and Simplicity. New York: ■ Society for Historians of American For­ of Washington Press, 1992. Asia Society Galleries, 1993. eign Relations: The Robert H. Ferrell Kelly, James C. V for Virginia: The Langdon, Susan, ed. From Pasture to Book Prize for a history of American Commonwealth at War, 1941-1945. Polis: Art in the Age of Homer. Columbia: foreign relations, 1992 Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1991. University of Missouri Press, 1993. Leffler, Melvyn P. A Preponderance of Ober, Josiah, and Charles W. Hedrick, Nooter, Mary H. Secrecy: African Art That Power: National Security, the Truman eds. The Birth of Democracy: An Exhibition Conceals and Reveals. New York: Museum Administration, and the Cold War. Stan­ Celebrating the 2500th Anniversary of for African Art, 1993. ford: Stanford University Press, 1992. Democracy. New York: American School of Payne, Christiana. Toil and Plenty: Images ■ Southern Historical Association, Classical Studies at Athens, 1993. of the Agricultural Landscape in England, Frances B. Simpkins Award, 1993 Rhodehamel, John H., Thomas F. 1780-1890. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Cohen, William. “At Freedom's Edge”: Schwartz, and James M. McPherson. Black Mobility and the Southern White The Last Best Hope of Earth: Abraham Peterson, Jacqueline, with Laura Peers Sacred Encounters: Father DeSmet and the Quest for Racial Control 1861-1915. Lincoln and the Promise of America. San Indians of the Rocky Mountain West. Norman: Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1993. University of Oklahoma Press. 1993. Press, 1991. Swagerty, William R., and John S. Aubrey. America in 1492: American Civilization on the Ross, Doran H. Elephant: The Animal and Its ■ Southern Historical Association, Ivory in African Culture. Los Angeles: UCLA Frank L. and Harriet Owsley Award, 1993 Eve of the Columbus Voyages. Chicago: The Newberry Library, 1992. Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1992. Ayers, Edward L. The Promise of the Sizer, Theodore, Nancy Sizer, S. Schwager, New South. New York: Oxford University L. T. Brickley, and G. Krueger. To Ornament Press, 1992. Their Minds: Sarah Pierce's Litchfield Female ■ Theatre Library Association: George Academy, 1792-1833. Litchfield, CT: Litchfield Freedley Memorial Award for excellence Historical Society, 1993. in writing about the theater Sutton, Peter C. The Age of Rubens. Allen, Robert C. Horrible Prettiness: Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1993. Burlesque and American Culture. Chapel NEH-Funded Trapp, Kenneth R. The Arts and Crafts Hill: The University of North Carolina Movement in California: Living the Good Press, 1991. Museum Catalogues Life. New York: Abbeville Press, 1993. ■ U.S. Music Library Association: Duck­ Alva, W., and C. B. Donnan. Royal Tombs Turner, Elizabeth H., ed. Jacob Lawrence: ies Award for the best book-length music of Sipan. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler The Migration Series. Washington, DC: bibliography Museum of Cultural History, 1993. Rappahannock Press, 1993. Cohen, Robert, ed. Dwight’s Journal of Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Joan Roth- Weissman, Jenna Joselit, and Karen Mittelman. A Worthy Use of Summer: Music. Six volumes. Repertoire international fuss. In the Spirit of Fluxus. Minneapolis: Jewish Summer Camping in America. de la presse musicale (RIPM). Ann Arbor: Walker Art Center, 1993. Philadelphia: National Museum of American University Microfilms International, 1992. Balderrama, Maria R. Wifredo Lam and His Jewish History, 1993. ■ University of Tokyo/Japan Foundation: Contemporaries, 1938-1952. New York: Welu, James A., and Pieter Biesboer, eds. Hiromi Arisawa Memorial Award, 1992 Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1992. Judith Leyster: A Dutch Master and Her Goff, Janet. Noh Drama and the Tale of Berrin, Kathleen, and Esther Pasztory World. Zwolle, Netherlands, and Worcester, Genji. Princeton: Princeton University Teotihuacan: Art From the City of the Gods. MA: Waanders Publishers and Worcester Press, 1991. New York,: Thames and Hudson, Inc., 1993. Art Museum. 1993.

HUMANITIES 47 Wiggins, W. H., Jr., and D. DeNatale Keeling, Richard, ed. Women in North Jubilation! African-American Celebrations in F F F 1 American Indian Music: Six Essays. Bloom­ the Southeast. Columbia: University of ington, Indiana: Society for Ethnomu- South Carolina McKissick Museum, 1993. Arts— History sicology, Inc., 1989. Zukowsky, John. Chicago Architecture and Kennedy, Dennis. Looking at Shake­ Design, 1923-1993. Chicago: Art Institute of and Criticism speare: A Visual History of Twentieth-Cen­ Chicago, 1993. tury Performance. New York: Cambridge Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel. Sonatina no. University Press, 1993. 4 in G Major H. 451: Sonatina no. 5 in F Major H. 452. Eds. Paul G. Wiley II and Kenney, William H. Chicago Jazz: A Cul­ Claudia Widgery. New York: Oxford tural History, 1904-1930. New York: Oxford University Press, Music Dept., 1989. University Press, 1993. □*E1 Barth, George. The Pianist As Orator: Kettering, Alison M. The Ter Borch Family Beethoven and the Transformation of Key­ Collection of Drawings in the Print Room of Archaeology and board Style. Ithaca: Cornell University the Rijksmuseum. Amsterdam: Rijksmu- Press, 1992. seum, 1988. Anthropology Becker, Judith. Gamelan Stories: Tantrism, Kliman, Bernice W. Shakespeare in Perfor­ Islam, and Aesthetics in Central Java. mance: Macbeth. Manchester, Eng.: Bonnefoy, Yves, comp. Mythologies: Arizona State University, 1991. Manchester University Press, 1992. American, African, and Old European. Leppert, Richard. The Sight of Sound: Trans. Wendy Doniger. Chicago: University Brett, Philip, ed. The Byrd Edition. Vol. 6b: Music, Representation, and the History of of Chicago Press, 1993. Gradualia I (1605), Other Feasts and Devo­ tions. London: Stainer and Bell Ltd., 1993. the Body. Berkeley: University of California Bonnefoy, Yves, comp. Mythologies: Asian. Browstein, Rachel M. Tragic Muse: Rachel Press, 1993. Trans. Wendy Doniger. Chicago: University of the Comedie-Fran$aise. New York: Alfred Lester, Joel. Compositional Theory in the of Chicago Press, 1993. A. Knopf, Inc., 1993. Eighteenth Century. Cambridge: Harvard Drennan, Robert D., Mary M. Taft, and Burmeister, Joachim. Musical Poetics. University Press, 1992. Carlos A. Uribe, eds. Prehispanic Chief- Trans. Benito V. Rivera. New Haven: Yale Lincoln, Harry B. The Latin Motet: Indexes doms in the Valle de la PI a ta. Vol. 2: University Press, 1993. to Printed Collections, 1500-1600. Ottawa: Ceramics—Chronology and Craft Production. Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1993. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Latin Crawford, Ruth. Music for Small Orchestra; American Archaeology Publications, 1993. Suite No. 2 for Four Strings and Piano. Eds. List, George. Stability and Variation in Hopi Judith Tick and Wayne Schneider. Music of Song. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Elmendorf, William W. Twana Narratives: the United States of America Series, Vol. 1. Society, 1993. Native Historical Accounts of a Coast Salish Madison: A-R Editions, Inc., 1993. Culture. Seattle: University of Washington Mark, Robert, and Ahmet S. Cakmak, eds. Dalby, Liza C. Kimono Fashioning Culture. Press, 1993. Hagia Sophia from the Age of Justinian to New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. the Present. New York: Cambridge Erndl, Kathleen M. Victory to the Mother: Deak, Frantisek. Symbolist Theater: The University Press, 1992. The Hindu Goddess of Northwest India of Formation of an Avant-Garde. Baltimore: Myth, Ritual and Symbol. New York: Oxford Moorefield, Arthur A. Johannes Galliculus Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. University Press, 1993. (Hahnel): The Introduction to Song Compo­ Feinsod, Arthur. The Simple Stage: Its sition. Ottawa: The Institute of Mediaeval Graham, Ian. Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Origins in the Modern American Theater. Music, 1992. Inscriptions. Vol. 4, Parts 2 and 3. Cambridge: New York: Greenwood Press, 1992. Harvard University Press, 1992. Myers, Gerald E., ed. African American Gaffurius, Franchinus. The Theory of Genius in Modern Dance. Chapel Hill: Hayes, J.W. Excavations at Sara

48 MAY/JUNE 1994 Edison, Thomas A. The Papers of Thomas A. Edison. Vol. 2: From Workshop to Labo­ ratory, June 1873-March 1876. Eds. Reese V. Jenkins, et al. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Classics University Press, 1991. Bagnall, Roger S. Egypt in Late Antiquity. Ragep, F.J. NasJr AI-DJn AI-TusJ's Memoir Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. on Astronomy. Vols. 1 and 2. New York: Carpenter, Thomas H., and Christopher Springer Verlag. 1993. A. Faraone, eds. Masks of Dionysus. Richards, Robert J. The Meaning of Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Enos, Richard L. Greek Rhetoric before Press, 1992. Aristotle. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Wave- land Press, 1993. Kristeller, Paul Oscar, comp. Iter Italicum. Vol. 5. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1993. L ’Annee Philologique. Tome LXII. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1993. Kroll, John H. The Athenian Agora, Volume History— Non U.S. XXVI. Princeton: American School of Classi­ Abrahamian, Ervand. Khomeinisn: Essays cal Studies at Athens, 1993. on the Islamic Republic. Berkeley: University Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae of California Press, 1993. Classicae. Vol. 6. Parts 1 and 2. Eds. Pierre Bak, Janos M., et al., eds. and trans. The Muller and Pascale Linant De Bellefonds. Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary, Zurich: Artemis, 1992. 1301-1457. Salt Lake City: Charles Segal, Charles. Euripides and the Poetics Schlacks Jr., 1992. of Sorrow. Durham: Duke University Press, Beckson, Karl. London in the 1890s: 1993. A Cultural History. New York: W. W. Norton Segal, Charles. Oedipus Tyrannus: Tragic and Company, 1992. Join the growing number of Humanities Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New Boyajian, James C. Portugese Trade in subscribers today, and get a year’s York: Twayne Publishers, 1993. Asia under the Habsburgs, 1580-1640. Balti­ subscription (six bimonthly issues) for more: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. only $13 or two years for only $26. Clayton, Lawrence A., et al., eds. The De Soto Chronicles. Vol. 1. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993. Cuomo, Glenn R. Career at the Cost of Compromise: Gunter Eich’s Life and Work Company or Individual name in the Years 1933-1945. Rodopi: Amster- Ethnic Studies dam-Atlanta, 1989. Kahin, Sharon, ed. From Trout Creek to Danforth, Susan, and William H. McNeill. Address Gravy High: The Boarding School Experi­ Encountering the New World, 1493 to ence at Wind River. Washakie, WY: 1800. Providence: The John Carter Brown Shoshone Episcopal Mission, 1993. Library, 1991. David, Abraham, and Leon J. Weinberger, eds. with Dena Orlin, trans A Hebrew Chronicle from Prague, c. 1615. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1993. Dawson, David J. Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria. City, State, ZIP code Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. History of Science Ebrey, Patricia Buckley, and Peter N. Gregory, eds. Religion and Society in Tang Bechtel, William, and Robert C. Richard­ Daytime phone, including area code son. Discovering Complexity: Decomposi­ and Sung China. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993. tion and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton: Princeton Fehrenbach, R. J., ed. Private Libraries Q Check payable to the Superintendent of University Press, 1993. in Renaissance England. Vol. 2. Bingham­ ton, NY: Medieval Renaissance Texts Documents Biagioli, Mario. Galileo, Courtier: The Prac­ Studies, 1993. tice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. ]] GPO deposit account Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Findly, Ellison B. NurJahan: Empress of Mughal, India. New York: Oxford University | | VISA or MasterCard Carstensen, Frederick V., Morton Roth- Press, 1993. stein, and Joseph A. Swanson, eds. Out­ Freedman, Paul. The Origins of Peasant standing in His Field: Perspectives on Servitude in Medieval Catalonia. Cam­ American Agriculture in Honor of Wayne D. Account no./Expiration date bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Rasmussen. Ames: The Iowa State University Press, 1993. Gleason, Elisabeth. Gasparo Contrarini: Venice, Rome, and Reform. Berkeley: 5/94 Corcos, Alain F., and Floyd V. Monaghan. University of California Press, 1993. Signature Gregor Mendel's Experiments on Plant Goldstein, R. James. The Matter of Scot­ Hybrids: A Guided Study. New Brunswick, land: Historical Narrative in Medieval Scot­ NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993. New Orders land. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Dols, Michael W. Majnun: The Madman in 1993. Superintendent of Documents Medieval Islamic Society. Ed. Diana E. Grafton, Anthony, April Shelford, and P.O.Box371954 Immisch. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Nancy Sirasi. New Worlds, Ancient Texts: Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 Donovan, Arthur. Antoine Lavoisier: Science, The Power of Tradition and the Shock of or FAX (202) 512-2233 Administration, and Revolution. Cambridge, Discovery. Cambridge: Belknap Press of orderprocessingcode: 5494 MA: Blackwell, 1993. Harvard University Press, 1992.

HUMANITIES 49 Guth, Christine M. Art, Tea, and Industry: Widmer, Ellen, and David Der-Wei Wang, Franklin, Benjamin. The Papers of Ben­ Masuda Takashi and the Mitsui Circle. eds. From May Fourth to June Fourth: jamin Franklin. Eds. Oberg, Barbara B., et Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Fiction and Film in Twentieth-Century al. Vol. 30: July 1 through October 31, 1779. Hickey, Gerald C. Shattered World: China. Cambridge: Harvard University New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam's Press, 1993. Franklin, Benjamin. The Papers of Ben­ Highland Peoples during the Vietnam War. Wikander, Matthew H. Princes to Act: jamin Franklin. Eds. Oberg, Barbara B., et Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Royal Audience and Royal Performance, al. Vol. 28: November 1, 1778 through Press, 1993. 1578-1792. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins February 28, 1779. New Haven: Yale Klingshirn, William. Caesarius of Arles: University Press, 1993. University Press, 1990. The Making of a Christian Community in Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. The History of al- Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Africans in Colo­ Late Antique Gaul. Cambridge: Cambridge TabarJ. Vol. 11: The Challenge to the nial Louisiana: The Development of Afro- University Press, 1994. Empires. Trans. Khalid Yahya Blankinship. Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Lach, Donald F., and Edwin J. Van Kley. Albany: State University of New York Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Asia in the Making of Europe. Vol. 3: A Press, 1993. Press, 1992. Century of Advance: Book 1, Trade, Mis­ Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. The History of al- Johnson, Andrew. The Papers of Andrew sions, Literature; Book 2, South Asia; Book 3, Tabari. Vol. 10: The Conquest of Arabia. Johnson. Ed. Paul H. Bergeron. Vol. 10. Southeast Asia: Book 4; East Asia. Chicago: Fred M. Donner, trans. Albany: State Eds. LeRoy P. Graf and Ralph W. Haskins. University of Chicago Press, 1993. University of New York Press, 1993. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Look Lai, Walton. Industrial Labor, Yarshater, Ehsan, ed. The History of al- Press, 1992. Caribbean Sugar: Chinese and Indian Tabari. Vol. 31: The War between Brothers. Kaminski, John P., and Gaspare J. Sal- Migrants to the British West Indies, 1838- Trans. Michael Fishbein. Albany: State adino. The Documentary History of the 1918. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University University of New York Press, 1992. Ratification of the Constitution. Vol. 10: Press, 1993. Virginia. Madison: State Historical Society of Yarshater, Ehsan. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Wisconsin, 1993. (w/microfilm) Mao, Tse-Tung. Mao's Road to Power: Rev­ Vol. 6, Fascicles 1-6. Costa Mesa, CA: olutionary Writings 1912-1949. Ed. Stuart R. Mazda Publishers, 1993. Klyberg, Albert T, ed. What a Difference a Schram. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1992. Bay Makes. Providence: Rhode Island His­ Zenkovsky, Serge A., ed. The Nikonian torical Society and Rhode Island Depart­ Minear, Richard H., ed. and trans. Chronicle. Vols. 4 and 5. Princeton: Darwin ment of State Library Services, 1993. Hiroshima: Three Witnesses. Princeton: Press, 1988. Princeton University Press, 1990. Laurens, Henry. The Papers of Henry Moch, Leslie P. Moving Europeans: Migra­ Laurens. Ed. David R. Chestnutt, C. James tion in Western Europe since 1650. Blooming­ Taylor, et al. Vol. 13. Columbia: University of ton: Indiana University Press, 1992. South Carolina Press, 1992. Monumenta Nipponica. Vol. 8, No. 3, Lemay, J. A. Leo, ed. Reappraising Autumn 1993. Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspec­ Muir, Edward. Mad Blood Stirring: Vendetta tive. Newark: University of Delaware Press, and Factions in Friuli during the Renais­ History— U.S. 1993. sance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Long, John H., ed. Atlas of Historical Bickford, Charlene Bangs, et al., eds. Press, 1993. County Boundaries. Mississippi. Comp. Debates in the House of Representatives. Palmer, Robert C. English Law in the Age Peggy Tuck Sinko. New York: Simon and Vol. 11: First Session: June-September Schuster, 1993. of the Black Death, 1348-1381. Chapel Hill: 1789. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University McLoughlin, William Gerald. After the University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Press, 1992. Trail of Tears: The Cherokees’ Struggle for Rouse, Richard H., and Mary A. Rouse. Boyer, Paul S., Clifford E. Clark, Jr., Registrum Anglie de Libris Doctorum et Sovereignty, 1839-1880. Chapel Hill: Uni­ Joseph F. Kett, et al., eds. The Enduring versity of North Carolina Press, 1993. Auctorum Veterum. The Corpus of British Vision: A History of the American People. Moulton, Gary E. American Encounters: Medieval Library Catalogues. London: Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath & Co., 1993. British Library, 1991. Lewis and Clark, the People, and the Land. Calhoun, John C. The Papers of John C. Ruggiero, Guido. Binding Passions: Tales Lincoln, NE: Center for Great Plains Calhoun. Vol. 21. Clyde N. Wilson, ed. Studies, 1991. of Magic, Marriage, and Power at the End of University of South Carolina Press, 1993. the Renaissance. New York: Oxford Neely, Mark E., Jr. The Last Best Hope of University Press, 1993. Capeci, Dominic J. Layered Violence: The Earth: Abraham Lincoln and the Promise of Detroit Rioters of 1943. Jackson: University Sahagun, Fray Bernardino. Primero America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press of Mississippi, 1991. Memoriales. Facsimile Edition. Norman: Press, 1993. University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. Costigliola, Frank. France and the United Norrell, Robert J. Dixie's War, The South States: The Cold Alliance since World War Schultenover, David. A View from Rome: and World War II. Tuscaloosa: The Center II. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1992. On the Eve of the Modernist Crisis. New for Southern History and Culture, 1992. York: Fordham University Press, 1993. DenBoer, Gordon, ed. The Documentary O’Brien, Michael. An Evening When Alone: History of the First Federal Elections, 1788- Spring, Eileen. Law, Land, and Family: Four Journals of Single Women in the 1790. Vol. 2. Madison: University of Aristocratic Inheritance in England, 1300 to South, 1827-67. Charlottesville: University Wisconsin Press, 1984. 1800. Chapel Hill: University of North Car­ Press of Virginia, 1993. olina Press, 1993. Dizikes, John. Opera in America: A Cul­ Polk, James K. Correspondence of James tural History. New Haven: Yale University Tec, Nechama. Defiance: The Bielski K. Polk. Vol. 8. Ed. Wayne Cutler. Knoxville: Partisans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. University of Tennessee Press, 1993. Press, 1993. Douglass, Frederick. The Frederick Preston, Katherine K. Opera on the Road: Douglass Papers. Speeches, Thibault, Bruno. L ’Allure de Morand: Du Series 1: Traveling Opera Troupes in the United Modernisme au Petainisme. Birmingham: Debates, and Interviews. Vol. 5. Eds. John States, 1825-60. Urbana: University of Summa Publications, 1992. W. Blassingame and John R. McKivigan. Illinois Press, 1993. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Twitchett, Denis, and John K. Fairbank, Ripley, C. Peter, ed. Witness for Freedom: eds. The Cambridge History of China. Ed. Dykstra, Robert R. Bright Radical Star: African American Voices on Race. Slavery, Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fair­ Black Freedom and White Supremacy on and Emancipation. Chapel Hill: University of bank. Vol. 15: The People's Republic, Part the Hawkeye Frontier. Cambridge: Harvard North Carolina Press, 1993. 2, Revolutions within the Chinese Revolu­ University Press, 1993. Roediger, David R. The Wages of White­ tion, 1906-1982. Cambridge: Cambridge Eagles, Charles W., ed. The Civil Rights ness: Race and the Making of the American University Press, 1991. Movement in America. Jackson: University Working Class. London: Verso, 1991. Weintraub, E. Roy. Stabilizing Press of Mississippi, 1986. Rothberg, Morey, and Jacqueline Goggin, Dynamics: Constructing Economic Knowl­ Eggert, Gerald G. Harrisburg Industrializes. eds. John Franklin Jameson and the Develop­ edge. Cambridge: Cambridge University University Park: Pennsylvania State Univer­ ment of Humanistic Scholarship in America. Press, 1991. sity Press, 1993. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993.

50 MAY/JUNE 1994 Stross, Randall E. Steve Jobs and the Bach, Peggy. Modern Fiction Studies. Vol­ Next Big Thing. New York: Macmillan Pub­ • • E ume 36, #3, Autumn 1990. Evelyn Scott’s lishing Company, 1993. The Narrow House. W. Lafayette, IN: Pur­ Sundquist, Eric J. To Wake the Nations: Language and Linguistics due University, 1993. Race in the Making of American Literature. Bach, Peggy. The Southern Quarterly: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993. Boyd-Bowman, Peter. Lexico his- A Journal of the Arts in the South. Volume panoamerican del siglo XX. Middleton, Wl: XXVIII, #4 Summer 1990. Evelyn Scott’s Tezla, Albert, ed. and trans. The Hazardous Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, Fiction for the Young. Hattiesburg: Univer­ Quest: Hungarian Immigrants in the United 1994. sity of Southern Mississippi, 1993. States, 1895-1920: A Documentary. Budapest: Corvina Books, 1993. Breivik, Leiv Egil, and Ernst Hdkon Jahr, Bach, Peggy and David Madden. Classics eds. Language Change: Contributions to the of Civil War Fiction. Jackson: University Washington, George. The Papers of George Study of Its Causes. Berlin: Mouton de Press of Mississippi, 1991. Washington. Eds. W. W. Abbott and Dorothy Gruyter, 1989. Twohig. Colonial Series, No. 8. Char­ Bell, David F. Circumstances: Chance in Davis, Murray S. What's So Funny? the Literary Text. Lincoln: University of lottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. The Comic Conception of Culture. Chicago: Nebraska Press, 1993. Washington, George. The Papers of George University of Chicago Press, 1993. Blessing, Patrick J. The Irish in America: A Washington. Eds. W. W. Abbott and Dorothy Frantzen, Allen J. Desire for Origins: New Guide to the Literature and the Manuscript Twohig. Presidential Series, No. 4. Char­ Language, Old English, and Teaching the Collections. Washington, D.C.: Catholic lottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. Tradition. New Brunswick: Rutgers University of America Press, 1992. Washington, George. The Papers of University Press, 1990. Bonaparte, Felicia. The Gypsy-Bachelor of George Washington. Eds. W. W. Abbott. Fulk, R. D. A History of Old English Meter. Manchester: The Life of Mrs. Gaskell’s Revolutionary War Series, No. 5. Char­ Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Demon. Charlottesville: University Press of lottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1993. Press, 1992. Virginia, 1992. Webster, Daniel. The Papers of Daniel Web­ An Index by Region, Usage, and Etymol­ Caramagno, Thomas C. The Flight of the ster. Correspondence Series. Vol. 7. Hanover, ogy to the Dictionary of American Regional Mind: Virginia Woolf’s Art and Manic- NH: University Press of New England, 1986. English. A publication of the American Dialect Depressive Illness. Berkeley: University of Wilson, Douglas L., ed. Jefferson's Literary Society, No. 77. Tuscaloosa: University of California Press, 1992. Commonplace Book. The Papers of Thomas Alabama Press, 1993. Carringer, Robert L. The Magnificent Jefferson, 2nd Series. Princeton: Princeton Kurath, Hans, et al., eds. Middle English Ambersons: A Reconstruction. Berkeley: University Press. 1989. Dictionary. Part T.1. Ann Arbor: University of University of California Press, 1993. Michigan Press, 1993. Clingham, Greg. James Boswell. The Life Napoli, Donna Jo. Syntax: Theory and Prob­ of Johnson. Cambridge: Cambridge Univer­ lems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. sity Press, 1992. Roy, Ross G., Patrick G. Scott, and Lucie Cornilliat, Francois, Ullrich Langer, and Roy, eds. Studies in Scottish Literature. Vol. Douglas Kelly, eds. What is Literature?: 26: The Language and Literature of Early France 1100-1600. Lexington: French Scotland. Columbia: University of South Forum Publishers, 1993. Interdiscip linary Carolina Press, 1991. Dabney, Lewis M. Edmund Wilson. The Admyte: Archivo Digital de Manuscros y Tex- Shusterman, Richard. Pragmatist Aesthet­ Sixties: The Last Journal, 1960-1972. New tos Espaholes. Madrid: Micronet, 1992. ics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art. Blackwell York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1993. Publishers, 1992. The Book of the Fairs: Materials about Daughters of Eve: Women’s Writing from World’s Fairs, 1834-1916, in the Smithson­ Sjoberg, Ake W. The Sumerian Dictionary. the German Democratic Republic. Ed. and ian Institution Libraries. Introduction by Vol. 1, Part 1. Philadelphia: Babylonian trans. Nancy Lukens and Dorothy Rosenberg. Robert Rydell. Chicago: American Library Section of the University Museum, 1992. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Association, 1992. Stankiewicz, Edward. The Accentual de Troyes, Chretien. Erec and Enide. Patterns of the Slavic Languages. Stanford: Brewer, John, and Roy Porter, eds. Trans. Dorothy Gilbert. Berkeley: University Stanford University Press, 1993. Consumption and the World of Goods. of California Press, 1992. London: Routledge, 1993. Studies in Language. Vol. 15, No. 1. Amster­ Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary. Vol. 1: dam: John Benjamins Publishing Co., 1991. Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: 1873-1876. Trans. Kenneth Lantz. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993. Translation and Colonization from The Tem­ Sylvestine, Cora, Heather K. Hardy, and Dictionary of the pest to Tarzan. New York: Oxford University Timothy Montler, et al. Dydo, Ulla E., ed. A Stein Reader: Gertrude Alabama Language. Austin: University of Press, 1991. Stein. Evanston: Northwestern University Texas Press, 1993. Press, 1993. Daedalus. Vol. 122, No. 3: Reconstructing Yue-Hashimoto, Anne. Comparative Nations and States. Cambridge, MA: Elliott, John R. Jr., The Folger Manuscript Chinese Dialectical Grammar: Handbook for Daedalus, 1993. of The Triumph of Peace Procession. Investigators. Paris: Ecole des hautes etudes Toronto: The British Library and University Goldberg, Susan and Roily Kent, eds. en sciences sociales, 1993. of Toronto Press, 1992. Courtly Love in the Shopping Mall: Humani­ Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Topical Note­ ties Programming for Young Adults. Chicago: books of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Susan American Library Association, 1991. Sutton Smith. Vol. 1. Columbia: University of Hawkins, Anne H. Reconstructing Illness: Missouri Press, 1993. Studies in Pathography. West Lafayette, IN: Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Topical Note­ Purdue University Press, 1993. books of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ed. Ronald Kurzweil, Edith, ed. Intellectuals and A. Bosco. Vol. 2. Columbia: University of Social Change in Central and Eastern Literature Missouri Press, 1993. Europe. Boston: Partisan Review, Inc., Andersen, Hans Christian. Diaries. Trans. Fine, Richard. James M. Cain and the 1992. Patricia L. Conroy and Sven H. Rossel. Seat­ American Authors' Authority. Austin: Univer­ Lang, William L., ed. A Columbia River tle: University of Washington Press, 1990. sity of Texas Press, 1992. Reader. Tacoma: Washington State Histori­ Asani, Ali S. The Harvard Collection of Florida, Nancy K. Javanese Literature in cal Society, 1992. Ismaili Literature in Indie Languages. Surakarta Manuscripts. Vol. 1: Introduction Meinig, D. W. The Shaping of America: A Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1992. and Manuscripts of the Karaton Surakarta. Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of Asian Classics Input Project CD-ROM. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. History. Volume 2 of Continental America, Source CD Release A. Gaithersburg, MD: Foster, Benjamin R. Before the Muses: An 1800-1867. New Haven: Yale University ACIP, 1993. Anthology of Akkadian Literature. Vols. 1 Press, 1993. Augenbraum, Harold, ed. Latinos in Eng­ and 2. Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 1993. Rice, James L. Freud’s Russia: National lish: A Selected Bibliography of Latino Fic­ Foster, John Burt, Jr. Nabokov’s Art of Identity in the Revolution of Psychoanalysis. tion Writers of the United States. New York: Memory and European Modernism. Prince­ New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1993. Mercantile Library, 1992. ton: Princeton University Press, 1993.

HUMANITIES Fredman, Stephen. The Grounding of The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Wilke, Sabine. Poetische Strukturen der American Poetry: Charles Olson and the Poetry and Poetics. Eds. Alex Preminger Moderne: Zeitgenossische Literatur zwis- Emersonian Tradition. Cambridge: and T. V. F. Brogan, et al. Princeton: Prince­ chen alter und neuer Mythologie. Stuttgart: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ton University Press, 1993. J. B. Metzler, 1992. Gold, Ann Grodzins. A Carnival of Parting: Olivares, Julian and Elizabeth S. Boyce Williams, Philip F. Village Echoes: The Tales of King Bharthari and King Gopi Tras el espejo la musa escribe: Lirica The Fiction of Wu Zuxiang. Boulder: Chand as Sung and Told by Madhu Natisar femenina de los Siglos de Oro. Madrid: Westview Press, 1993. Nath of Ghatiyali, Rajasthan. Berkeley: Siglo Veintiumo de Espaha Editores, S.A. Williams, William Carlos. Paterson. Ed University of California Press, 1992. Parisi, Joseph. Poets in Person: A Listener's Christopher MacGowan. New York: New Hall, Joan W. Shirley Jackson: A Study of Guide. Chicago: Modern Poetry Association Directions Books, 1992. the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne Pub­ and American Library Association, 1992. Williamson, Joel. William Faulker and lishers, 1993. Howard-Hill, T. H. Index to British Literary Southern History. New York: Oxford Univer­ Hanawalt, Barbara A., comp. Chaucer’s Eng­ Bibliography. Vol. 7. Oxford: Clarendon sity Press, 1993. land: Literature in Historical Context. Min­ Press, 1992. Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads and neapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992. Proust, Marcel. Correspondence. Tome XXI. Other Poems, 1797-1800. Eds. James Butler Heath, Peter. Allegory and Philosophy in Ed. Philip Kolb. Paris: Librairie Plon, 1993. and Karen Green. Ithaca: Cornell University Avicenna (Ibn Sina): With a Translation of Ringler, William A., Jr. Bibliography and Press, 1992. the Book of the Prophet Muhammad’s Index of English Verse in Manuscript: 1501- Zuckert, Catherine H. Natural Right and the Ascent to Heaven. Philadelphia: University 1558. Prep, and comp. Michael Rudick and American Imagination: Political Philosophy in of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. Susan J. Ringler. New York: Mansell Pub­ Novel Form. Savage, MD: Rowman and Lit­ Helgerson, Richard. Forms of Nationhood: lishing. Ltd.. 1992. tlefield, 1990. The Elizabethan Writing of England. Rossel, Sven H., ed. A History of Danish Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Literature. Vol. 1 of A History of Scandina­ Hollander, John, ed. American Poetry: the vian Literatures. Lincoln: University of Nineteenth Century, 2 vols. New York: Nebraska Press, 1992. r m Library of America, 1993. Schor, Naomi. George Sand and Idealism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. Holtz, William. The Ghost in the Little House: A Life of Rose Wilder Lane. Colum­ Scruggs, Charles. Sweet Home: Invisible Philosophy bia: University of Missouri Press. 1993. Cities in the Afro-American Novel. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. Alston, William P. Perceiving God: The Howard-Hill, T. H. Index to British Literary Epistemology of Religious Experience. Bibliography. Vol. 7. Oxford: Clarendon Simonds, Peggy M. Myth, Emblem, and Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991. Press, 1992. Music in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline: An Iconographic Reconstruction. Newark: Cummins, Phillip D., and Guenter Zoeller, The Plum in the et al. Minds, Ideas, and Objects: Essays on Hsiao-hsiao-sheng. University of Delaware Press, 1992. Golden Vase, or Chin P’ing Mei. Trans. the Theory of Representation in Modern David Tod Roy. Princeton: Princeton Smith, Martha Nell. Comic Power in Emily Philosophy. Vol. 2. Atascadero: Ridgeview University Press, 1993. Dickinson. Austin: University of Texas Publishing Company, 1992. Press, 1993. Index of English Literary Manuscripts. Vol. Dickey, Laurence Winant. Hegel: Religion, 3, Part 1: Alexander Pope-Sir Richard Steele, Smith, Martha Nell. Rowing in Eden: Economics, and the Politics of Spirit, 1770- Rereading Emily Dickinson. Austin: with a First-Line Index to Parts 1-3. Dir. 1807. Cambridge: Cambridge University University of Texas Press, 1992. Margaret M. Smith and Alexander Lindsay. Press, 1987. London: Mansell Publishing Limited, 1992. Stewart, Joan H. Gynographs: French Fichte, J. G. Foundations of Transcenden­ Novels by Women of the Late Eighteenth Index of English Literary Manuscripts. tal Philosophy: (Wissenschaftslehre) Nova Century. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Vol. 2, Part 2: Lee-Wycherley. Comp. Peter Methodo (1796/99). Ithaca: Cornell Univer­ Press, 1993. Beal. London: Mansell Publishing Ltd., 1992. sity Press, 1992. Sturm-Maddox, Sara. Petrarch's Laurels. Kavanagh, Thomas M. Enlightenment and Flage, Daniel E. David Hume's Theory University Park: Pennsylvania State Univer­ of Mind. London: Routledge. 1990. the Shadows of Chance: The Novel and the sity Press, 1992. Culture of Gambling in Eighteenth-Century Galilei, Galileo. Galileo's Logical Treatises: A France. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Tatlock, Lynne, ed. Seventeenth-Century Translation, with Notes and Commentary, of Press, 1993. German Prose. German Library. Vol. 7. New His Appropriated Latin Questions on York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1992. Kelley, Philip, and Scott Lewis, eds. The Aristotle's Posterior Analytics. Vol. 138. Lon­ Terras, Victor. A History of Russian Brownings' Correspondence. Vol. 10: Janu­ don: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992. Literature. New Haven: Yale University ary 845-July 1845, letters 1799-1981. Win­ Hardin, C.L. Color for Philosophers: Press, 1991. field, KS: Wedgestone Press, 1992. Unweaving the Rainbow. Expanded Edition. Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita, eds Women Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1988. Knapp, Jeffrey. An Empire Nowhere. Eng­ Writing in India: 600 B C. to the Present. land, America, and Literature from to Hsiung, Yang. The Canon of Supreme Utopia Vol. 2: The Twentieth Century. New York: The Tempest Berkeley: University of Mystery. Trans. Michael Nylan. Albany: Feminist Press at City University of New State University of New York Press, 1993. California, 1992. York, 1993. Lamb, Mary Ellen. Gender and Authorship James, William. The Correspondence of Thomas, Deborah A. Thackeray and William James. Eds. Ignas K. Skrupskelis in the Sidney Circle. Madison: University of Slavery. Athens: Ohio University Press. 1993. Wisconsin Press, 1990. and Elizabeth M. Berkeley. Vol. 2. Char­ Tolson, Jay. Pilgrim in the Ruins: A Life of lottesville: University Press of Virginia. 1993. Lanyer, Aemilia. The Poems of Aemilia Walker Percy. New York: Simon and Schus­ Jrianesvara, Geshe Yeshe Wangchuk. Lanyer: Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum. Ed. ter, 1992. Susanne Woods. New York: Oxford Univer­ Jewel of the True Thought: A Commentary Townsend, Mary Lee. Forbidden Laughter: on the Pramanavarttika of Acarya Dhar- sity Press, 1993. Popular Humor and the Limits of Repression makJrti. Part 2. Bylakuppe. India: Sera Mey London, Jack. The Complete Short Stories in Nineteenth-Century Prussia. Ann Arbor: Tibetan Monastic University, 1992. of Jack London. Eds. Earle Labor, Robert C. University of Michigan Press, 1992. Kenshur, Oscar. Dilemmas of Enlighten­ Leitz III, and I. Milo Shepard. Stanford: Stan­ Twain, Mark. Roughing It. Eds. Harriet Elinor ment: Studies in the Rhetoric and Logic of ford University Press, 1993. Smith and Edgar Marquess Branch. Berke­ Ideology. Berkeley: University of California Manganaro, Marc. Myth, Rhetoric, and the ley: University of California Press. 1993. Press. 1993. Voice of Authority. New Haven: Yale Univer­ Walsh, James E. A Catalogue of the Kierkegaard, Soren. Three Discourses on sity Press, 1992. Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the Imagined Occasions. Ed. and trans. Howard Melville, Herman. Correspondence. Ed Harvard University Library. Vol. 2. Bing­ V. Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Lynn Horth. Evanston: Northwestern hamton, NY: Medieval Renaissance Texts Princeton University Press, 1993. University Press, 1993. Studies, 1993. Kierkegaard, Soren. Upbuilding Discourses Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descrip­ Walsh, Thomas F. Katherine Anne Porter in Various Spirits. Ed. and trans. Howard V. tive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of and Mexico: The Illusion of Eden. Austin: Hong and Edna H. Hong. Princeton: Prince­ Pittsburgh Press, 1993. University of Texas Press. 1992. ton University Press, 1993.

52 MAY/JUNE 1994 Louden, Robert B. Morality and Moral Carlson, Maria. “No Religion Higher Than Theory. A Reappraisal and Reaffirmation. Truth": A History of the Theosophical Move­ New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. ment in Russia, 1875-1922. Princeton: Matthews, Gareth B. Thought’s Ego in Princeton University Press, 1993. Augustine and Descartes. Ithaca: Cornell Hooker, Richard. Of the Laws of Ecclesias­ University Press, 1992. tical Polity: Introductions and Commentary. McConnell, Terrance. Gratitude. Philadel­ Ed. W. Speed Hill. Vol. 6, Parts 1 and 2. phia: Temple University Press, 1993. Binghamton, NY: Medieval Renaissance McKirahan, Richard D. Principles and Texts Studies, 1993. Proofs: Aristotle’s Theory of Demonstrative Kaufman, Stephen A., and Michael Science. Princeton: Princeton University Sokoloff. A Key-Word-in-Context Concor­ Press, 1992. dance to Targum Neofiti: A guide to the Meyer, Susan Sauve. Aristotle on Moral complete Palestinian Aramaic Text of the Responsibility. Cambridge: Blackwell Torah. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Publishers. 1993. Press, 1993. Morris, Thomas V. Making Sense of It All: Kiple, Kenneth F., ed The Cambridge Pascal and the Meaning of Life. Grand Rapids: World History of Human Disease. New York: Eerdman’s Publishing Company, 1992. Cambridge University Press, 1993. Oser, Jamyang Choklha (text), and Lieb, Michael. The Visionary Mode: Biblical Tongkor Shabdrung Jampel Gendun Prophecy, Hermeneutics, and Cultural Gyatson (commentary). The Logic Primer Change. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, of Rato. Mundgod, South India: Rato Dat- 1991. sang Tibetan Monastic University, 1992. Meyer, Marvin. The Gospel of Thomas: Peirce, Charles Sanders. Reasoning and the The Hidden Sayings of Jesus. Harper San Logic of Things. Ed. Kenneth Laine Ketner. Francisco, 1992. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. Mott, Wesley T., ed. The Complete Sermons "Psst. The word is Putnam, Hilary. II pragmatismo: una ques- of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Vol. 4. Columbia: tione aperta. Gius, Laterza and Figli, 1992. University of Missouri Press, 1992. Kumanif-ies Riley, Patrick. Treatise on Nature and Niditch, Susan. War in the Hebrew Bible: A Grace. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. Study in the Ethics of Violence. New York: Join the growing number of Humanities Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Discourse on Oxford University Press. 1993. subscribers today, and get a year’s the Origins of Inequality. Vol. 3 of The Col­ Ringler, William A., Jr. Bibliography and subscription (six bimonthly issues) for lected Writings of Rousseau. Eds. Roger D. Index of English Verse in Manuscript 1501- Masters and Christopher Kelly. Hanover, 1558. Prep, and comp. Michael Rudick and only $13 or two years for only $26. NH: University Press of New England, 1992. Susan J. Ringler. London: Mansell Publish­ Sallis, John, ed. Reading Heidegger: Com­ ing, Ltd., 1992. memorations. Bloomington: Indiana University Schneider, A. Gregory. The Way of the Press, 1993. Cross Leads Home: The Domestication of Company or Individual name Silver, Isidore. The Intellectual Evolution of American Methodism. Bloomington: Indiana Ronsard. Volume 3: Ronsard’s Philosophic University Press, 1993. Thought. Part 1, The Evolution of Philoso­ Shailor, Barbara A. Catalogue of Medieval phy and Religion From Their Mythical and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Bei- Address Origins. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1992. necke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Sorabji, Richard, ed. Philoponus: On Aristo­ Yale University. Vol. 3: Marston tle Physics 2. Trans. A. R. Lacey. London: Manuscripts. Binghamton. NY: Medieval Duckworth, 1994. Renaissance Texts Studies, 1992. Sorabji, Richard, ed. Porphyry: On Aristotle Sheiemay, Kay Kaufman, and Peter Jeffery, Categories. Trans. Steven K. Strange. Lon­ eds. Ethiopian Christian Liturgical Chant. Vol. don: Duckworth. 1992. 1. Madison, Wl: A-R Editions, Inc., 1993.

Sorabji, Richard, ed. Simplicius: On Aristotle City, State, ZIP code Physics 4. 1-5, 10-14. Trans. J.O. Urmson. London: Duckworth, 1992. F HE Daytime phone, including area code Sodal Sdence Bulmer, Martin, Kevin Bales, and Kathryn | | Check payable to the Superintendent of Kish Sklar, eds. The Social Survey in Histor­ Documents Religion ical Perspective, 1880-1940. Cambridge: Adams, Hannah. A Dictionary of all Religions Cambridge University Press. 1991. [] GPO deposit account and Religious Denominations: Jewish, Irving, Washington. Mahomet and His Heathen, Mahometan, Christian, Ancient and Successors. Eds. Henry A. Pochmann and | | VISA or MasterCard Modern. Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1992. E. N. Feltskog. Madison: University of Wis­ Bosworth, C. E., et al., eds. The Encyclo­ consin Press. 1970. pedia of Islam: New Edition. Fascicles 129- Licht, Robert A., ed. Is the Supreme Court Account no./Expiration date 136: nafzawa—rafc. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1993. the Guardian of the Constitution? Washing­ Bowen, John R. Muslims through Dis­ ton, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute Press, 1993. course: Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society. Signature 5/94 Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993. Licht, Robert A., ed. Old Rights & New. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Brown, Virginia, ed. Catalogus Transla- i M Institute Press, 1993. tionum et Commentariorum: Medieval and New Orders Renaissance Latin Translations and Com­ Moulakis, Athanasios. Beyond Utility: mentaries. Vol. 7: Annotated Lists and Liberal Education for a Technological Age. Superintendent of Documents Guides. Washington, DC: Catholic Univer­ Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1994. P.O.Box371954 sity of America Press, 1992. Robinson, Fred Miller. The Man in the Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 Buchanan, George W. Biblical and Theolog­ Bowler Hat: His History and Iconography. or FAX (202) 512-2233 ical Insights from Ancient and Modem Civil Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina orderprocessingcode: 5494 Law. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1992. Press, 1993.

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