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1978

On Novels by Black American Women: A Bibliographical Essay

Rita B. Dandridge

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This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Rita 8. Dandridge A slightly better bibliography, published the 1975) and Eva's Man (New York: Random same year, is Darwin T. Turner's Afro­ House, 1976); Toni Morrison's Sula (Alfred On Novels by American Writers (New York: Appleton­ Knopf, 1973); Carlene Polite's Sister X and Black American Women: A Bibliographical Essay Century-Crofts, 1970). With emphasis on the Victims of Foul Play (New York: the major works published by Afro-Ameri­ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975); Ann The following is part of a bibliographical can writers in the twentieth century, Turner Shockley's Loving Her (New York: The essay which will appear in Black Women's lists eighteen Black American female Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc., 1974); and Studies, to be published by The Feminist novelists and their works. Special features Alice Walker's Meridian (New York: Press. The complete essay goes on of the Turner bibliography include such Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976). Most to include extensive bibliographical infor­ annotations as an asterisk following an of the foregoing out-of-print older novels mation on individual Black women entry to indicate novels of special im­ and difficult-to-purchase newer ones can novelists. portance and a dagger sign to indicate the be ordered from several reputable distribu­ availability of the work in paperback. The tion points: 1) AMS Press, Inc., 56 East Novels written by Black American women most extensive listing of novels written by 13 Street, New York, New York 10003; have been woefully neglected by scholars, Black American women is that of Ora 2) McBlain Books, Box 971, Des Moines, Black and white. They have been mentioned Williams in American Black Women: In the Iowa 50304; and 3) University Place Book in footnotes, cited in cross-references, Arts and Social Sciences (Metuchen, New Store, 840 Broadway, New York, New tucked away in bibliographies, and glossed Jersey: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1973, York 10003. over in reviews and surveys. Few are men­ pp. 33-36). Williams lists 51 novels written tioned in the Encyclopedia Americana. No by 3 5 Black American women. II. LITERARY AND comprehensive study of the novel by PERSONAL BACKGROUND Black American women exists. To date, no Supplement to Bibliographies • individual Black American female novelist Sources of information about the literary and her novels have been dealt with in a Important novels published before 1973 backgrounds and personal lives of Black book-length published study. Doctoral dis­ but not included in the current bibliog­ women novelists are scarce and generally sertations on the Black American female raphies are Dorothy Lee Dickens's Black on unpublished. Information relating to the novelist are only just beginning to emerge, the Rainbow (New York: Pageant Press, unpublished sources of novels by Black and contributions to scholarly journals on 1952); Pauline Hopkins's Contending American women still living can be ob­ her novels are few and far between. In view Forces (Boston: Colored Cooperative Pub­ tained either by writing to the authors listed of the neglect of these novels, this essay has lishing Co., 1900); Audrey Lee's The in Ann Allen Shockley's and Sue P. Chand­ been written as a guide for teachers and Workers (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969); ler's biographical directory entitled Living students. Cleo Overstreet's The Boar Hog Woman Black American Authors (New York: R.R. (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., Bowker Company, 1973) or by writing to I. GUIDE TO THE NOVELS 1972); Carlene Hatcher Polite's The Flagel­ the authors not listed in the directory in /ants (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, care of their publishers. Bibliographies 1967), also published in France under the Several bibliographies, including a listing of title of Les Flagel/ants in 1966; Felice Autobiographies Swados's House of Fury (New York: novels by Black American women, are avail­ The two published autobiographies by Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc., able. Professor Robert A. Corrigan, former Black American women novelists are director of the Institute for Afro-American 1946); and Zara Wright's Kenneth, pub­ Gwendolyn Brooks's Report from Part Culture, University of Iowa, published a lished under the same cover with her Black One: The Autobiography of Gwendolyn "Bibliography of Afro-American Fiction: and White Tangled Threads (Chicago: Bar­ Brooks (Detroit: Broadside Press, 1972) 1853-1970" in the Summer 1970 issue of nard and Miller, 1920). Popular novels and Zora Neale Hurston's Dust Tracks on a Studies in Black Literature, pp. 51-86. written by Black American women after Road (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Though Professor Corrigan lists a consider­ the publication of Williams's bibliography Company, 1942). able number of novels by Black American include Arthenia Bates's The Deity Nodded women, gives the prices of the novels, and (Detroit: Harlo Press, 1973); Rosa Guy's Letters and Personal Papers indicates which novels can be obtained in The Friends (New York: Holt, Rinehart paperback, his bibliography has two serious and Winston, 1973) and Ruby (New York: To my knowledge, no letters of a single drawbacks: secondary works written by Viking Press, 1976); Gayle Jones's Black American female novelist have been Blacks are not distinguished from those Corregidora (New York: Random House, published. Zora Neale Hurston's letters and written by whites, and most novels are not papers, however, can be found in the Uni­ distinguished from short story collections. versity of Florida library at Gainesville, and in the James Weldon Johnson Collec-

28 tion of Yale University. Ann Petry's ietters Black Writers (New York; Liveright, 1973). and papers can be found at the University In the same volume, O'Brien interviews of Connecticut. Alice Walker. Another important source is Margaret Alice Walker's second novel, Meridian, a Walker's paper, How I Wrote Jubilee , pub­ study of the civil rights movement of the lished in pamphlet form ( 3 6 pages) by 1960s, is the focus of Jessica Harris's inter­ Third World Press in 1972. view with her in Essence 7 (July 1976): 33.

Articles Ill. CRITICISM

Zora Neale Hurston, in "Characteristics of General Criticism Negro Expression ," Negro : An Anthology , Although no full-length study of the novel ed. Nancy Cunard (New York : Frederick by Black American women has appeared, Ungar Publishing Company, [reprint) novels written by Black American women 1970), describes the primary characteristics have received token respect in other book­ of Negro expression and names the Negro 's length studies. The first full-length study three major contributions to the language : of Black fiction in America, Nick Aaron the use of met aphor and simile , the use of Ford's Contemporary Negro Novel (Boston: the double descriptive, and the use of the Meador Co., 1936), examines novels from verbal noun. In "The Task of the Negro 1914 to 1936 and illu_minates the views of Writer as Artist," Negro Digest 14 (April Black writers on issues of race. Ford con­ 1965 : 54-74, notes by Gwendolyn Brooks centrates on such themes in the novel as and Kristin Hunter on what a good Negro segregation, passing, prejudice, imitation, writer should be are included. In "Black Zora Neale Hurston. From Zora Neale and social intermingling. He includes in his Writers' Views on Literary Lions and Hurston: A Literary Biography, by Robert E. study nine men and two women (Fauset Values," Negro Digest 17 (January 1968) : Hemenway, published by the University of and Larsen); he does not refer to any Black 10-47, Gwendolyn Brooks, Alice Childress, Illinois Press, which has also just brought out a paperback reprint of Their Eyes Were female novelists before Fauset, and he does Kristin Hunter, Alice Walker, and Margaret Watching God. not examine all the novels of the two Walker examine the values and literary Black women he has chosen to write on. characteristics of great Black writers. In Published 12 years after Ford's study "The Negro Woman in American Litera­ with George Stavros, which first appeared was Hugh Gloster's Negro Voices in Ameri­ ture," Freedomways 6 (Winter 1966): in Contemporary Literature 11 (1970): can Fiction (Chapel Hill: University of 8-25 , Sarah E. Wright, Alice Childress, 1-20, Gwendolyn Brooks, in addition to North Carolina Press, 1948). Gloster, like and Paule Marshall speak on and against discussing her poetry , answers very specific Ford, gives more attention to the novels the negative image of Black women por­ questions about Maud Martha (19 5 3 ). of Fauset and Larsen than to novels by trayed in American literature and also Jerry Ward's "Legitimate Resources of any other women. Though he does devote point out the few good images of Black the Soul: An Interview with Arthenia Bates one or two pages each to such novels as women in literature-mostly given by Black Millican," Obsidian 3 (Spring 1977): 14-34, Frances Harper's Iola Leroy (1892), Pauline women writers themselves. exposes Millican's views on Black human­ Hopkins's Contending Forces (1900), Sarah The Book News Section of The Buffalo ism and the Black aesthetic, and includes Fleming's Hope's Highway ( 1918), and Evening News, November 15, 1975, p. 7, comments on her poetry, short stories, and Zora Neale Hurston's]onah's Gourd Vine contains relevant statements by and about novel. An earlier interview between Milli­ (1934) and Their Eyes Were Watching God Carlene Hatcher Polite that shed light on can and Hollie West appeared in the Wash­ (1937), mainly Gloster summarizes plots. her background as a writer. ington Post, June 11, 1970, p. 32. A popular and often quoted study is In the December 1976 Essence, pp. 54 ff., Robert Bone's The Negro Novel in America Interviews Jessica Harris interviews Toni Morrison. (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1958). Two pertinent interviews of Gwendolyn James Ivy, in his article-interview en­ Bone views the Negro novel as following Brooks have been published twice, first in titled "Ann Petry Talks about Her First the historical development of the American separate journals and later in her autobiog­ Novel," Crisis 53 (February 1946): novel but having a "life of its own which raphy, Report from Part One. In her inter­ 48-49, gives a physical description and his springs from the soil of a distinctive minor­ view with Ida Lewis, first published in personal first impressions of Ann Petry. ity culture." Examining Negro novels from Essence 2 (April 1971) : 27-31, Gwendolyn Ann Petry 's interview with John O'Brien Brooks discusses her views of the Black 27 years later appears in Int erviews with revolution in the 1960s. In her interview

29 William Wells Brown's Clotel (1853) to a myopic , chauvinistic, and Negrophobic Darwin Turner's In a Mino r Chord James Baldwin's Another Country (1962), study, views only Ann Petry as having "a (Carbondale : Southern Illinois Press, 1971) he divides his study of the novel into four place almost as prominent and promising as examines the writings of Jean Toomer, parts. In Part I, "The Novel of the Rising that of the bigger three [Wright, Baldwin, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston, Middle Class: 1890-1920," Bone mentions Ellison) . " Roger Rosenblatt, author of three writers who comprise a "melancholy the first Black American female novelist, Black Fiction (Cambridge, Massachusetts: minor chord" because of their inability to Frances Harper, but devotes only one in­ Harvard University Press, 197 4), views the find satisfaction in their search for their significant paragraph to her novel, Iola novels of only two Black American women, heritage. Turner views Hurston unsympa­ Leroy (1892). In Part II, "The Discovery Zora Neale Hurston and Ann Petry, as fit­ thetically as "an imaginative, somewhat of the Folk: 1920-1930," Bone barely re­ ting into his study. In Black American Lit­ shallow, quick-tempered woman, desperate serves the last five pages to the two most erature (New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams for recognition and reassurance." Robert popular Black American female novelists and Company, 1974), Roger Whitlow, dis­ Hemenway's meticulously researched of the time, Fauset and Larsen. Though cussing works from 1960 to the present, Zora Neale Hurston : A Literary Biography Bone admits that Fauset wrote more novels includes only novels by Kristin Hunter, (Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1977), than any other Black American from 1924 Sarah Wright, and Paule Marshall. with a foreword by Alice Walker, will un­ to 19 33, he dismisses her four novels as In the 1970s several studies have included doubtedly become the standard reference being "sophomoric, trivial, and dull" and information about the novels of Black work for information about Hurston's life devotes one sentence to each of them. women: Nathan Huggins's The Harlem and works. D In the case of Nella Larsen, Bone cagily Renaissance (New York: Oxford University admits that the novel Passing (1929) is Press, 1971); Noel Schraufnagel's The Rita B. Dandridg e teaches English at "probably the best treatment of the sub­ Black American Novel (Deland, Florida: Norfolk State College, Norfolk, Virginia. ject in Negro fiction" but devotes only Everette/Edwards, Inc., 1973); Amritjit half a paragraph to a discussion of the Singh's The Novels of the Harlem Renais ­ novel. His discussion of Larsen's Quicksand sance (University Park: Pennsylvania State (1928) is lengthier. In Part lll, "The Search University Press, 1976); and James 0. for a Tradition: 1930-1940," Bone com­ Young's Black Writers of the Thirties TO SUBSCRIBE ments at length on Zora Neale Hurston's (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University OR TO RENEW Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), Press, 197 3 ). Of the four, the Schraufnagel YOUR SUBSCRIPTION mentions in passing Jonah's Gourd Vine and Singh works are the most important. (1934) and Seraph on the Suwanee (1948), From Schraufnagel, one learns, for the first D $ 7 for an individual and omits entirely Moses, Man of the time in a full -length study, the contents domestic subscription Mountain (1939). In Part IV, "The Revolt and critical assessments of such novels as D $14 for two years against Protest: 1940-1952," Bone devotes Rosa Guy's Bird at My Window (1966), D $21 for three years two sentences to Ann Petry's The Street Carlene Polite's The Flagel/ants (1966), (1946), which was a best seller, and two and Odella Wood's High Ground (1945). D $12 for an institutional sentences to Country Place (194 7), but Amritjit Singh's The Novels of the Harlem domestic subscription does not mention The Narrows (1953) . Renaissance examines 21 novels published D $24 for two years His comments about Dorothy West's The by Black writers between 1923 and 1933, D $36 for three years Living is Easy (1948) focus on the bitchery six of which are by Fauset and Larsen. Foreign subscribers, please add $3 per year. of the Black female protagonist, Cleo From the Dark Tower (Washington, D.C.: Judson. Howard University Press, 1974), by Arthur Please make checks payable to: Robert Bone's hit-or-miss discussions of P. Davis, is a valuable reference guide to Women's Studies Newsletter the novels written by Black American the study of Black literature. Surveying Mail to: women are typical of male critics' treat ­ Black literature from 1900 to 1965, Davis Women's Studies Newsletter ment of those novels in the 1960s. David includes the novels of Jessie Fauset, Nella The Feminist Press Littlejohn, who published Black on White Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Box 334 (New York: Grossman Publishers, 1966), Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ann Petry. An important feature of this ref­ Old Westbury, New York 11568

erence guide is the extensive biographical Name ______information on the writers' lives which leads to a better understanding and appre ­ Address ______ciation of the writers' novels . City ______

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