Anthology of American Negro Literature", Highlighting the Contributions of Black Writers to American Literature, 1944

1944. [African American][Literature] Watkins, Sylvestre C. (ed.). Anthology of American Negro Literature. New York: Random House / The Modern Library, 1944. First edition. Original tan cloth with gilt and green title panels to spine and front board. This landmark anthology sought to present, in Watkins' words, "a representative record of the achievement of the American Negro in literature." It gathers work from the 18th century through the early 1940s, with a particular emphasis on the Harlem Renaissance and its aftermath. Contributors include Phillis Wheatley, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and Sterling A. Brown. The collection spans multiple genres including poetry, short fiction, drama, essays, autobiography, and folklore.

The volume was part of The Modern Library's effort to bring culturally significant works to a mass audience in affordable editions. The publication date is significant: appearing at the height of the Double V campaign, the anthology implicitly aligned African American cultural achievement with calls for racial equality both at home and abroad. While later anthologies would critique its omissions and its framing within the integrationist politics of the 1940s, Anthology of American Negro Literature served as an important midcentury reference point, often used in college curricula and public library collections to introduce mainstream audiences to African American writing. Light rubbing to extremities, faint toning to spine, a few small spots to boards; interior clean, binding sound. Very good overall. An influential early anthology canonizing African American literature for a general audience.