Harlem Renaissance and Beyond
Literary Biographies of One Hundred Black Women Writers, 1900-1945
Edited by Lorraine E. Roses
Edited by Ruth E. Randolph
Each essay provides insightful biographical information that helps to place the author's writings within the context of the heightened political, economic, and social awareness of the time...Roses and Randolph have secured a place for themselves among black feminist scholars who are 'filling in the gaps' by recovering and reclaiming a body of work that belongs to the 'precursors/foremothers' of more contemporary African American women writers.
--Choice
In the past, reviewers and critics have confined their examinations of the Harlem Renaissance to the literary contributions of male poets and authors such as Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer. However, Lorraine Roses and Ruth Randolph's Harlem Renaissance and Beyond presents a detailed and accessible biographical study of black women writers, active not only during the movement but in the years directly preceding and following its demise. By broadening and revising our understanding of this unique period in literary history, Harlem Renaissance and Beyond exposes the complexity of the political and economical factors which faced women wanting to publish work during this time...Well illustrated with rare archival photographs, the book offers an illuminating literary excavation of work by black women writers who have either been forgotten or marginalised; hence it achieves a timely revision of male-centred analyses of the movement.
--Stand [UK]
Lorraine Elena Roses is Professor of Spanish and Director of Latin American Studies at Wellesley College.
Ruth Elizabeth Randolph, a graduate of Wellesley, is an independent scholar.