Black April: A Novel

by Julia Peterkin, Susan Millar Williams (Foreword by)

Overview

Julia Peterkin pioneered in demonstrating the literary potential for serious depictions of the African American experience. Rejecting the prevailing sentimental stereotypes of her times, she portrayed her black characters with sympathy and understanding, endowing them with the full dimensions of human consciousness. In these novels and stories, she tapped the richness of rural southern black culture and oral traditions to capture the conflicting realities in an African American community and to reveal a grace and courage worthy of black pride.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820319537
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	02/01/1998
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	5.12(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

JULIA PETERKIN (1880–1961) was the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and, with photographer Doris Ulmann, a nonfiction collection of essays entitled Roll, Jordan, Roll. She was the first South Carolinian to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

SUSAN MILLAR WILLIAMS teaches American literature and creative writing at Trident Technical College in Charleston, South Carolina. Her writing has been published in the Nation and the Southern Review.

JULIA PETERKIN (1880–1961) was the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and, with photographer Doris Ulmann, a nonfiction collection of essays entitled Roll, Jordan, Roll. She was the first South Carolinian to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Editorial Reviews

[Black April is] the first genuine novel in English of the Negro as a human being.

founding editor - Donald Davidson

The figure of Black April, the foreman of Blue Brook Plantation, who gives the book its title, is of the heroic, almost grandiose, mold of the legendary protagonists of fiction.

New York Times

Black April's vigorous simplicity makes it deserving of a place among the world's best folk-tales.

The Nation

"[Black April is] the first genuine novel in English of the Negro as a human being."--Donald Davidson, founding editor

"The figure of Black April, the foreman of Blue Brook Plantation, who gives the book its title, is of the heroic, almost grandiose, mold of the legendary protagonists of fiction."--New York Times

"Black April's vigorous simplicity makes it deserving of a place among the world's best folk-tales."--The Nation

From the Publisher