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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Alex Haley, Malcolm X, M. S. Handler

ISBN 0345376714 (0-345-37671-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith [via]
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The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X, Alex Hailey

ISBN 0345350685 (0-345-35068-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books

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Book summary:
Malcolm X's searing memoir belongs on the small shelf of great autobiographies. The reasons are many: the blistering honesty with which he recounts his transformation from a bitter, self-destructive petty criminal into an articulate political activist, the continued relevance of his militant analysis of white racism, and his emphasis on self-respect and self-help for African Americans. And there's the vividness with which he depicts black popular culture--try as he might to criticize those lindy hops at Boston's Roseland dance hall from the perspective of his Muslim faith, he can't help but make them sound pretty wonderful. These are but a few examples. The Autobiography of Malcolm X limns an archetypal journey from ignorance and despair to knowledge and spiritual awakening. When Malcolm tells coauthor Alex Haley, "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book," he voices the central belief underpinning every attempt to set down a personal story as an example for others. Although many believe his ethic was directly opposed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights struggle of the '60s, the two were not so different. Malcolm may have displayed a most un-Christian distaste for loving his enemies, but he understood with King that love of God and love of self are the necessary first steps on the road to freedom. --Wendy Smith [via]
More editions of The Autobiography of Malcolm X:
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X: ISBN 0345339207 (0-345-33920-7)
  Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
- The Autobiography of Malcolm X: ISBN 0345350685 (0-345-35068-5)
  Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Beloved
by Toni Morrison

ISBN 1400033411 (1-4000-3341-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
Toni Morrison gently reads her own Pulitzer Prize-winning work in the unabridged version of this riveting tale of ex-slave Sethe and the beloved ghost that haunts her. While Morrison makes occasional odd pauses in her reading, what is lost in smoothness is more than made up for in quiet intensity as the author reads words obviously deeply felt. Her intimate knowledge of the characters and their motivations lends this reading an authority that helps the listener sort out the breaks in time and dialogue in this complex story of a woman coming to terms with her enslaved past and the loss of her husband and baby daughter. (Running time: 12 hours, eight cassettes) --Kimberly Heinrichs [via]
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Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison

ISBN 0671742922 (0-671-74292-2)
Softcover, Pocket Books

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Book summary:
Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 2000: Originally published in 1970, The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel. In an afterword written more than two decades later, the author expressed her dissatisfaction with the book's language and structure: "It required a sophistication unavailable to me." Perhaps we can chalk up this verdict to modesty, or to the Nobel laureate's impossibly high standards of quality control. In any case, her debut is nothing if not sophisticated, in terms of both narrative ingenuity and rhetorical sweep. It also shows the young author drawing a bead on the subjects that would dominate much of her career: racial hatred, historical memory, and the dazzling or degrading power of language itself.
Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.
There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.
This vein of self-hatred is exactly what keeps Morrison's novel from devolving into a cut-and-dried scenario of victimization. She may in fact pin too much of the blame on the beauty myth: "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." Yet the destructive power of these ideas is essentially colorblind, which gives The Bluest Eye the sort of universal reach that Morrison's imitators can only dream of. And that, combined with the novel's modulated pathos and musical, fine-grained language, makes for not merely a sophisticated debut but a permanent one. --James Marcus [via]
More editions of Bluest Eye:
- Bluest Eye: ISBN 0679433732 (0-679-43373-2)
  Hardcover, Random House Inc
- Bluest Eye: ISBN 0671742922 (0-671-74292-2)
  Softcover, Pocket Books
Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, Americas's First Civil Rights Movement
by Fergus Bordewich

ISBN 0060524316 (0-06-052431-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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- Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, Americas's First Civil Rights Movement: ISBN 0060524316 (0-06-052431-6)
  Softcover, Harpercollins
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Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad And The War For The Soul Of America
by Fergus M. Bordewich

ISBN 0060524308 (0-06-052430-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins

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Book summary:
An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for change
The civil war brought to a climax the country's bitter division. But the beginnings of slavery's denouement can be traced to a courageous band of ordinary Americans, black and white, slave and free, who joined forces to create what would come to be known as the Underground Railroad, a movement that occupies as romantic a place in the nation's imagination as the Lewis and Clark expedition. The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest. Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion arose a fierce clash of values that was nothing less than a war for the country's soul. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only challenged prevailing mores but also subverted federal law.
Bound for Canaan tells the stories of men and women like David Ruggles, who invented the black underground in New York City; bold Quakers like Isaac Hopper and Levi Coffin, who risked their lives to build the Underground Railroad; and the inimitable Harriet Tubman. Interweaving thrilling personal stories with the politics of slavery and abolition, Bound for Canaan shows how the Underground Railroad gave birth to this country's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for social change.
[via]
More editions of Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad And The War For The Soul Of America:
- Bound For Canaan: The Underground Railroad And The War For The Soul Of America: ISBN 0060524308 (0-06-052430-8)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harold Bloom

ISBN 0791036723 (0-7910-3672-3)
Hardcover, Facts on File

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- Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin: ISBN 0791036723 (0-7910-3672-3)
  Hardcover, Facts on File
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The Illustrated Souls Of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois, Eugene F. Provenzo, Manning Marable

ISBN 159451030X (1-59451-030-X)
Hardcover, Paradigm Pub

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Book summary:
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line . . . - W. E. B. Du Bois, 1903. This prophetic statement made by W. E. B. Du Bois over a century ago is from The Souls of Black Folk. One hundred years later, Souls remains the most important treatment of African-American life and culture published in the Twentieth century. Richly illustrated, this special edition of Du Bois's seminal work includes historical woodcuts and engravings, photos, and documents. Most of the photos, engravings, and documents are from the 19th and early 20th century and depict American slavery and its legacy, African-American life, and the prominent figures and events associated with the book's content. Assembled by Eugene F. Provenzo, Jr., this illustrated edition of The Souls of Black Folk also offers extensive annotations, commentary, and related materials from government, the media, advertising, and popular culture. Documents include: the Act Establishing the Freedman's Bureau; Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition Speech; W. E. B. Du Bois's essay The Talented Tenth; Ida B. Wells-Barnett's The Lynch Law in Georgia; W. E. B. Du Bois's report The Negro in the Black Belt; Alexander Crummell's sermon Common Sense and Schooling; W. E. B. Du Bois's story The Black Man Brings His Gifts; Thomas W. Higginson's Negro Spirituals, and more. Annotated, Illustrated, Documentary Editions are a new series of books created by Eugene Provenzo and Paradigm Publishers, offering classic works in Literature, the Social Sciences, and the Humanities with extensive commentary, illustrations, and related documentary sources. [via]
More editions of The Illustrated Souls Of Black Folk:
- The Illustrated Souls Of Black Folk: ISBN 159451030X (1-59451-030-X)
  Hardcover, Paradigm Pub
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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison

ISBN 0679732764 (0-679-73276-4)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, The Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue, "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." But this is hard-won self-knowledge, earned over the course of many years.
As the book gets started, the narrator is expelled from his Southern Negro college for inadvertently showing a white trustee the reality of black life in the south, including an incestuous farmer and a rural whorehouse. The college director chastises him: "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie! What kind of an education are you getting around here?" Mystified, the narrator moves north to New York City, where the truth, at least as he perceives it, is dealt another blow when he learns that his former headmaster's recommendation letters are, in fact, letters of condemnation.
What ensues is a search for what truth actually is, which proves to be supremely elusive. The narrator becomes a spokesman for a mixed-race band of social activists called "The Brotherhood" and believes he is fighting for equality. Once again, he realises he's been duped into believing what hethought was the truth, when in fact it is only another variation. Of the Brothers, he eventually discerns: "They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves.... Here I thought they accepted me because they felt that colour made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either colour or men".
Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, andsadly enough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's first novel transcends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world isa tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man, who leaves us with these chilling, provocative words: "And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?" --Melanie Rehak, Amazon.com [via]
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Narrative of the Life & Times of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass

ISBN 1930097115 (1-930097-11-5)
Softcover, Lushena Books

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This Eloquent and dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave was first published in 1845, when its author was twenty eight years old & had just achieved his freedom. Although it was not uncommon during the era of American slavery for articulate Blacks who escaped to have their experiences published, Narraive Of The Life & Times Of Frederick Douglass is unique among these slave narratives because of Douglass's eloquent power of expression. [via]
More editions of Narrative of the Life & Times of Frederick Douglass:
- Narrative of the Life & Times of Frederick Douglass: ISBN 1930097115 (1-930097-11-5)
  Softcover, Lushena Books
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass

ISBN 1420922378 (1-4209-2237-8)
Softcover, Digireads.Com

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Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895) was born into slavery by a slave mother and an unknown father. At the age of 8, he started to educate himself with the help of his master's wife. In 1838, he fled Baltimore for the North. There he soon became a noted author and speaker on slavery.
Douglass wrote three autobiographies, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" (1845), "My Bondage and My Freedom" (1855) and "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" (1881). Quiet Vision publishes all three plus the "Selected Works of Frederick Douglass", a collection of short works and speeches.
A man ahead of his time, in the 1840's he had to be dragged from the railroad cars reserved for whites. He also protested the dual standard of certain churches in having separate worship. [via]
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Not Available

ISBN 1580495761 (1-58049-576-1)
Softcover, Prestwick House Inc

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Born into a family of slaves, Frederick Douglass educated himself through sheer determination. His unconquered will to triumph over his circumstances makes his one of Americas best and most unlikely success stories. Douglass own account of his journey from slave to one of Americas great statesmen, writers, and orators is as fascinating as it is inspiring.
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition includes a glossary and readers notes to help the modern reader contend with Douglass nineteenth-century style and vocabulary. [via]
More editions of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass:
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: ISBN 1580495761 (1-58049-576-1)
  Softcover, Prestwick House Inc
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave
by Robert G. O'Meally, Frederick Douglass

ISBN 1593080417 (1-59308-041-7)
Softcover, Barnes & Noble

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Book summary:
Narrative of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, by Frederick Douglass, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

No book except perhaps Uncle Toms Cabin had as powerful an impact on the abolitionist movement as Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. But while Stowe wrote about imaginary characters, Douglasss book is a record of his own remarkable life.

Born a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early yearsthe daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.

An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.

Robert OMeally is Zora Neale Hurston Professor of Literature at Columbia University and the Director of Columbia Universitys Center for Jazz Studies. He wrote the introduction and notes to the Barnes & Noble classics edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

[via]
More editions of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave:
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave: ISBN 1593083572 (1-59308-357-2)
  Hardcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
- Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave: ISBN 1593080417 (1-59308-041-7)
  Softcover, Barnes & Noble
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
by Frederick Douglass

ISBN 0674601017 (0-674-60101-7)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr

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Book summary:
Written more than a century ago by Frederick Douglass, a former slave who went on to become a famous orator, U.S. minister, and a leader of his people, this masterpiece is one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recorded. Douglass [via]
More editions of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave:
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave: ISBN 0674601017 (0-674-60101-7)
  Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave & Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl
by Frederick Douglass, Harriet A. Jacobs

ISBN 0679783288 (0-679-78328-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc

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Book summary:
This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition combines the two most important African American slave narratives into one volume.

Frederick Douglass's Narrative, first published in 1845, is an enlightening and incendiary text. Born into slavery, Douglass became the preeminent spokesman for his people during his life; his narrative is an unparalleled account of the dehumanizing effects of slavery and Douglass's own triumph over it. Like Douglass, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and in 1861 she published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, now recognized as the most comprehensive antebellum slave narrative written by a woman. Jacobs's account broke the silence on the exploitation of African American female slaves, and it remains crucial reading. These narratives illuminate and inform each other. This edition includes an incisive Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah and extensive annotations. [via]
More editions of Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave & Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl:
- Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave & Incidents In The Life Of A Slave Girl: ISBN 0679783288 (0-679-78328-8)
  Softcover, Random House Inc
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Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
by Anthony S. Abbott, P. Ellison

ISBN 0812035208 (0-8120-3520-8)
Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc

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Book summary:
A guide to reading "Invisible Man" with a critical and appreciative mind encouraging analysis of plot, style, form, and structure. Also includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list. [via]
More editions of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man:
- Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: ISBN 0812035208 (0-8120-3520-8)
  Softcover, Barrons Educational Series Inc
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
by P. Ellison

ISBN 067100901X (0-671-00901-X)
Softcover, Monarch Notes

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More editions of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man:
- Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: ISBN 067100901X (0-671-00901-X)
  Softcover, Monarch Notes
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Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
by Mildred D. Taylor

ISBN 1557361401 (1-55736-140-1)
Hardcover, Cornerstone Books

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In all Mildred D. Taylor's unforgettable novels she recounts "not only the joy of growing up in a large and supportive family, but my own feelings of being faced with segregation and bigotry." Her Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry tells the story of one African American family, fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their Papa. "Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You may not understand that now but one day you will. Then you'll see."
Twenty-five years after it was first published, this special anniversary edition of the classic strikes as deep and powerful a note as ever. Taylor's vivid portrayal of ugly racism and the poignancy of Cassie's bewilderment and gradual toughening against social injustice and the men and women who perpetuate it, will remain with readers forever. Two award-winning sequels, Let the Circle Be Unbroken and The Road to Memphis, and a long-awaited prequel, The Land, continue the profoundly moving tale of the Logan family. (Ages 9 and older) --Emilie Coulter [via]
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The Souls of Black Folk
by W. E. B. Du Bois

ISBN 1406511196 (1-4065-1119-6)
Softcover, Dodo Pr

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William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) is the greatest of African American intellectuals--a sociologist, historian, novelist, and activist whose astounding career spanned the nation's history from Reconstruction to the civil rights movement. Born in Massachusetts and educated at Fisk, Harvard, and the University of Berlin, Du Bois penned his epochal masterpiece, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903. It remains his most studied and popular work; its insights into Negro life at the turn of the 20th century still ring true.
With a dash of the Victorian and Enlightenment influences that peppered his impassioned yet formal prose, the book's largely autobiographical chapters take the reader through the momentous and moody maze of Afro-American life after the Emancipation Proclamation: from poverty, the neoslavery of the sharecropper, illiteracy, miseducation, and lynching, to the heights of humanity reached by the spiritual "sorrow songs" that birthed gospel and the blues. The most memorable passages are contained in "On Booker T. Washington and Others," where Du Bois criticizes his famous contemporary's rejection of higher education and accommodationist stance toward white racism: "Mr. Washington's programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races," he writes, further complaining that Washington's thinking "withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens." The capstone of The Souls of Black Folk, though, is Du Bois' haunting, eloquent description of the concept of the black psyche's "double consciousness," which he described as "a peculiar sensation.... One ever feels this twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." Thanks to W.E.B. Du Bois' commitment and foresight--and the intellectual excellence expressed in this timeless literary gem--black Americans can today look in the mirror and rejoice in their beautiful black, brown, and beige reflections. --Eugene Holley Jr. [via]
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The Souls of Black Folk
by Henry Louis Gates, W. E. B. Du Bois, Terri Hume Oliver

ISBN 039397393X (0-393-97393-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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When it was published in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk revolutionized thinking about the experience of African Americans in the United States.This collection of essays on African American history, culture, and society probes fundamental issues of race and justice and documents Du Bois's conviction that the "soul" of the black community must be preserved and revered. The text reprinted here is that of the first book edition (1903). "Contexts" presents a fascinating collection of political and biographical documents related to the text. Also included are eighteen photographs that accompanied Du Bois's 1901 article "The Negro As He Really Is." "Criticism" offers thirteen contemporary and recent assessments of Du Bois and Souls, rounding out the picture of this enduring work. [via]
More editions of The Souls of Black Folk:
- The Souls of Black Folk: ISBN 039397393X (0-393-97393-X)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Stowe:Three Novels : Uncle Tom's Cabin; the Minister's Wooing; Oldtown Folks
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Kathryn K. Sklar

ISBN 0940450011 (0-940450-01-1)
Hardcover, Library of America, The

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Described by Henry James as "much less a book than a state of vision," "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is probably the most influential work of fiction in American history. Stowe's moving Christian epic turned millions of Americans against slavery, bringing the "peculiar institution" immeasurably closer to its fiery destruction. In "The Minister's Wooing" and "Oldtown Folks," Stowe examines the interplay of religion, domesticity, and women's roles and choices in the shaping of American culture. [via]
More editions of Stowe:Three Novels : Uncle Tom's Cabin; the Minister's Wooing; Oldtown Folks:
- Stowe:Three Novels : Uncle Tom's Cabin; the Minister's Wooing; Oldtown Folks: ISBN 0940450011 (0-940450-01-1)
  Hardcover, Library of America, The
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, Gates, Henry Louis (AFT), Edwidge Danticat

ISBN 0060838671 (0-06-083867-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins

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At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.
Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:
It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.
One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."
Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Toni Morrison's the Bluest Eye
by Harold Bloom

ISBN 0791051919 (0-7910-5191-9)
Hardcover, Facts on File

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Book summary:
A child's descent into madness was explored in Eye.
The title, Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye, part of Chelsea House Publishers Modern Critical Interpretations series, presents the most important 20th-century criticism on Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye through extracts of critical essays by well-known literary critics. This collection of criticism also features a short biography on Toni Morrison, a chronology of the authors life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. [via]
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Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Amanda Claybaugh

ISBN 1593080387 (1-59308-038-7)
Softcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc

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Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:
All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

Nearly every young author dreams of writing a book that will literally change the world. A few have succeeded, and Harriet Beecher Stowe is such a marvel. Although the American anti-slavery movement had existed at least as long as the nation itself, Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1852) galvanized public opinion as nothing had before. The book sold 10,000 copies in its first week and 300,000 in its first year. Its vivid dramatization of slaverys cruelties so aroused readers that it is said Abraham Lincoln told Stowe her work had been a catalyst for the Civil War.
Today the novel is often labeled condescending, but its charactersTom, Topsy, Little Eva, Eliza, and the evil Simon Legreestill have the power to move our hearts. Though Uncle Tom has become a synonym for a fawning black yes-man, Stowes Tom is actually American literatures first black hero, a man who suffers for refusing to obey his white oppressors. Uncle Toms Cabin is a living, relevant story, passionate in its vivid depiction of the cruelest forms of injustice and inhumanityand the courage it takes to fight against them.
Amanda Claybaugh is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
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Uncle Tom's Cabin, Or, Life Among the Lowly
by Harriet Beecher Stowe

ISBN 0895773678 (0-89577-367-8)
Hardcover, Reader's Digest

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Book summary:
Uncle Tom's Cabin is an American classic written by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Harriet Beecher Stowe was appalled by slavery, and she took one of the few options open to nineteenth-century women who wanted to affect public opinion: she wrote a novel, a huge, enthralling narrative that claimed the heart, soul, and politics of pre-Civil War Americans. An overtly moralistic work of unabashed propaganda, it is an attempt to make whites North and South see slaves as mothers, fathers, and children as human beings. Her basic question remains penetrating even today: Is man ever a creature to be trusted with wholly irresponsible power? Uncle Tom's Cabin is an American classic that every American should read. [via]
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