Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940

by James V. Hatch, James V. Hatch (Editor), Leo Hamalian (Editor)

Overview

A valuable contribution to African American literary and theatrical scholarship, this volume is a compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance, brought together for the first time and set in a historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814338339
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	10/01/1996
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	468
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Leo Hamalian, a Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a professor of English at The City College of New York. He has written or edited more than one dozen volumes, including As Others See Us and In Search of
Eden, and is currently editor of Ararat.

James V. Hatch is a professor of English at the City University of New York. A Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, he edited Black Theatre in the U.S.A., 1847-1974 and Black
Playwrights, 1825-1977: An Annotated Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

Like Kathy Perkins's Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays Before 1950 (Indiana Univ., 1989) and Hatch and Hamalian's own The Roots of African American Drama: An Anthology of Early Plays, 1958-1938 (Wayne State Univ., 1991), this is one of several relatively recent works that help make long out-of-print or previously unpublished plays available to contemporary readers. Nine of the 16 plays in Hatch and Hamalian's new collection have not been published before. Playwrights range from the well known (Langston Hughes, George S. Schuyler) to the obscure (Ralf M. Coleman, Andrew M. Burris). Among the best of these plays are Schuyler's The Yellow Peril, Conrad Seiler's Darker Brother, Francis Hall Johnson's folk opera Run Little Chillun, and Shirley Graham's radio drama Track Thirteen. The editors provide a useful introduction, headnotes on each author, and a short bibliography. Of special interest is an appendix containing 20 key articles (written from 1919 to 1928) on black theater. Recommended for all collections interested in drama and/or African American literature.Louis J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn Campus

Library Journal

A compilation of 16 plays written during the Harlem Renaissance, by authors including Langston Hughes and Shirley Graham. An introduction describes the historical context of the plays and explores the challenges presented to artists by the political and social climate of the time. Individual introductions to each play provide biographical information on playwrights. Includes articles and essays from the period on theater and other issues. For readers in African American studies and theater. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Makes long out-of-print or previously unpublished plays available to contemporary readers . . . . The editors provide a useful introduction, headnotes on each author, and a short bibliography. Of special interest is an appendix containing 20 key articles (written from 1919 to 1928) on black theater.-- "Library Journal"

From the Publisher