On Gwendolyn Brooks

Reliant Contemplation

Edited by Stephen Caldwell Wright

Subjects: Literary Studies, American Literature, Poetry and Poetry Criticism, African American Studies, Gender Studies
Paperback : 9780472088393, 296 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, December 2001
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.13330
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A reassessment of the art and achievements of the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize

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Contents
Contents

Preface - xi

Part One: Reviews

A Street in Bronzeville

Chicago Can Take Pride in New, Young Voice in Poetry - 3
PAUL ENGLE

Review of A Street in Bronzeville - 5

Annie Allen

Cellini-Like Lyrics - 6
J. Saunders Redding

Verse Chronicle - 8
ROLFE HUMPHRIES

Still Remarkable - 9
Bronze by Gold - 10
STANLEY KUNITZ

Maude Martha

From Poet to Novelist - 15
Soft Meditations - 16
HENRY F. WINSLOW

The Bean Eaters

From "Battle of the Books" - 17
NICK AARON FORD

Pity the Giants - 19
HARVEY CURTIS WEBSTER

Selected Poems

Taking the Poem by the Horns - 23
LOUIS SIMPSON

A Long Reach, Strong Speech - 24
BRUCE CUTLER

In the Mecca

Books That Look Out, Books That Look In - 26
WILLIAM STAFFORD

In the Mecca - 27
M. L. ROSENTHAL

The World of Gwendolyn Brooks
Making Beauty from Racial Anxiety - 29
ADDISON GAYLE, JR.

The World of Gwendolyn Brooks - 35
ROBERT FARNSWORTH

Children Coming Home

Children Coming Home: A Tribute to Survival - 38
ANNYE L. REFOE

Part Two: Essays

Blacklisting Poets - 45
JAMES N. JOHNSON

Gwendolyn Brooks: An Appreciation from the White Suburbs - 50
DAN JAFFE

For Sadie and Maud - 60
ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks - 66
GEORGE E. KENT

Gwendolyn Brooks: Beyond the Wordmaker -- The Making of an African Poet - 81
HAKI R. MADHUBUTI

Gwendolyn Brooks - 97
ARTHUR P. DAVIS

Essences, Unifyings, and Black Militancy: Major Themes in Gwendolyn Brooks's Family Pictures and Beckonings - 106
WILLIAM H. HANSELL

From "The Florescense of Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s" - 116
HOUSTON A. BAKER

Maud Martha - 124
HARRY B. SHAW

Dual Vision in Gwendolyn Brooks's Maud Martha - 136
PATRICIA H. LATTIN AND VERNON E. LATTIN

"Define . . . the Whirlwind": Gwendolyn Brooks's Epic Sign for a Generation - 146
R. BAXTER MILLER

In the Mecca - 161
D. H. MELHEM

Gwendolyn Brooks: Jean Toomer's November Cotton Flower - 182
JOYCE ANN JOYCE

Making It Really New: Hilda Doolittle, Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Feminist Potential of Modern Poetry - 186
GERTRUDE REIF HUGHES

The Satisfaction of What's Difficult in Gwendolyn Brooks's Poetry - 213
BROOKE KENTON HORVATH

"Gottschalk and the Grande Tarantelle" - 224
BRENDA R. SIMMONS

Part Three: Recent Essays

The Women of Bronzeville - 233
BEVERLY GUY-SHEFTALL

The Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks: An Afrocentric Exploration - 246
JOYCE ANN JOYCE

Gwendolyn Brooks: An Essential Sanity - 254
HENRY TAYLOR

In Memoriam: Gwendolyn Brooks - 277
ANGELA JACKSON

Selected Bibliography - 285

Description

This essential book collects reviews and essays on the art and career of Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. While she is best known for her poetry, Brooks's essays, fiction, and children's collections have also drawn critical acclaim and are discussed in this volume.
Stephen Caldwell Wright's collection gathers essays and reviews from a remarkable range of sources: from long out-of-print journals to the New Yorker. Similarly, it draws from an eclectic group of writers, ranging from Eleanor Holmes Norton to Louis Simpson. The reviews reveal Brooks as a poet who, despite her vast knowledge and classical leanings, remains a voice of and for the people.
In 1968, Gwendolyn Brooks succeeded Carl Sandburg as Poet Laureate of Illinois. She has received two Guggenheim Fellowships and has served as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. Stephen Caldwell Wright is Professor of English, Seminole Community College.

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