Blacks

By Gwendolyn Brooks

Book Overview

Here is a necessary collection of poetry for admirers of words and treasurers of literary beauty. Spanning more than 30 years, this collection of literary masterpieces by the venerable Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks, arguably Illinois' most beloved Poet Laureate and Chicago's elder black literary stateswoman, ""Blacks"" includes all of Ms. Brooks' critically acclaimed writings. Within its covers is the groundbreaking ""Annie Allen,"" which earned her the Pulitzer Prize in 1950. There is also the sweepingly beautiful and finely crafted ""A Street in Bronzeville,"" a highly anticipated and lauded poetic treasure that spoke volumes for this great poet's love of black people, Chicago's Black community, and even the community of the world. ""Blacks"" includes a special treat, ""Maud Martha,"" Brooks' only novel.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0883781050
• ISBN13: 9780883781050
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Third World Press
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Ms. Brooks best writings

This book contains some of Gwendolyn Brooks best poetry. It is definitely a keeper!

Excellent poetry

A collection of poetry by Brooks, probably the most honored African- American poet. It also includes "Maud Martha," Brooks' single novel to date. I liked the novel, but felt it was a little too much for me. I like poetry, but I think I like it in small doses, where I can relax and read and reread it without concentrating on how much time it is taking me to do so. Her fiction is like poetry, in the sense that it had as much...

Brooks has "a long reach, / strong speech"

"Blacks" is a collection of several decades' worth of the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, who is one of the most significant figures in 20th century American poetry. At over 500 pages long, "Blacks" is a truly monumental text. Included are several books in their entirety ("Annie Allen," "In the Mecca," etc.) as well as excerpts from some later books ("Primer for Blacks," "The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems," etc.). Although...

Sweeping and Epic

Gwendolyn Brooks is one of my favorite poets and this anthology of her work gives a glimpsing answer to the question 'why?' "Blacks" is a veritae encyclopedia of the America experience written in Brooks' lucid but unsettling style. It's people like T.S Eliot which make us think art is an inclusive privilege of a born, elite few. And then artists -like Brooks- go right along and prove that, at its best, art is inclusive,...