Sterling Allen Brown (1901–1989)
Author of The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown
About the Author
Sterling Brown devoted his life as a writer to a development of an authentic African American literature and to a career as an educator of African American students, especially at Howard University, where he taught for 40 years. He was among the first to identify folklore as central to the black show more aesthetic. Brown published his first book of poetry, Southern Road, in 1932, but, although the book was well received, Brown met critical and publishing resistance to his next collection. Discouraged, Brown turned his energies to producing a steady stream of essays, reviews, and sketches about African American life. Negro Poetry and Drama and The Negro in American Fiction, both published in 1938, are seminal studies; and his anthology of African American literature, The Negro Caravan (1941), defined the field as a scholarly and academic discipline. The Collected Poems (1980), which contains many early poems never before published, assures Brown's fame as a poet at the same time that it serves as a painful reminder of a gift that was stunted because it was ignored. A first-rate narrative poet and a master of the folk idiom, Brown was, for many, a bridge between nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American literature. He is a writer who helped to define African American literature and experience for blacks and whites alike. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Sterling Allen Brown
Works by Sterling Allen Brown
The Negro Caravan: Writings by American Negroes (The American Negro: His History and Literature) (1970) 39 copies
Negro poetry and drama 2 copies
The Negro in American fiction 2 copies
Associated Works
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,467 copies, 9 reviews
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Contributor — 442 copies, 1 review
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature {2nd edition} (2003) — Contributor, some editions — 282 copies, 2 reviews
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contributor — 234 copies, 4 reviews
The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work (2010) — Contributor — 157 copies, 1 review
Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to Be White (1998) — Contributor — 129 copies, 2 reviews
In Search of Color Everywhere: A Collection of African-American Poetry (1994) — Contributor — 107 copies
The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Concise Edition (2003) — Contributor — 73 copies, 1 review
The Ethnic Image in Modern American Literature, 1900-1950, Volumes 1-2 (1984) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Brown, Sterling Allen
- Legal name
- Brown, Sterling Allen
- Birthdate
- 1901-05-01
- Date of death
- 1989-01-13
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Williams College (1922)
Harvard University (MA ∙ 1923) - Occupations
- author
professor
poet
scholar of English language and literature - Organizations
- Howard University
- Awards and honors
- Frost Medal (1986/1987)
Sterling A. Brown Day celebrated on May 1 in Washington D.C.
Washington, D.C. Poet Laureate (1984|1989) - Relationships
- Morrison, Toni (student)
Carmichael, Stokely (student)
Nkrumah, Kwame (student)
Sowell, Thomas (student)
Davis, Ossie (student)
Baraka, Amiri (student) - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Washington, D.C., USA
- Places of residence
- Washington, D.C., USA
Howard County, Maryland, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
While I'm a lifelong lover of fiction, I read only so many nonfiction books, and I'm selective about the subjects I dive into.
Of course, the American literary landscape isn't just the same as it was back when this book was first published in 1937. But one of the main reasons that I as a Black American woman picked this book up is because it's worth remembering that Black literary voices aren't a recently developed phenomenon or just a current "trend" rising in publishing.
Black people have show more always had something to say. And we've been writing and discussing fiction in America for longer than many people may be aware. Even in 1937, there was already quite a history of Black American fiction worthy of exploration, and this author offers commentary on much of it, as well as on depictions of Black people in fiction written by American authors who weren't Black.
Granted, when I mention us having "something" to say, it doesn't mean that Black Americans have essentially only one message or that we all merely echo each other. I reiterate from time to time that the Black experience isn't a narrow one and that neither Black culture nor Black thought are monolithic. I appreciate how this book highlights that, likewise pointing out how racial stereotypes develop and have oftentimes been perpetuated in fiction—when writers possess or convey too little knowledge and too narrow/limited a view of something as nuanced, multifaceted, complex, and historied as a whole people group.
I've read and/or heard of several of the authors discussed in this book, and others I haven't, including most of the Black authors who wrote and published novels before the American Civil War. As for a few among the 20th-century fiction works mentioned in this book that I haven't read, I added them to my list to check out sometime.
However, this wasn't an easy book for me to get through. As the author includes many direct quotes and passages from late 18th-century to early 20th-century American fiction, cruel and ugly depictions of racism are frequent in this book, including details of serious violence and numerous appearances of the N-word and other racial slurs. Also, given that realistic literature in general involves much tragedy, hard living, misery, etc., many of the stories the author discusses here are heavy ones.
I'm not at all new to such material. So I didn't feel I was shortchanging myself when I skimmed or skipped over some of the passages, on account of where my psyche is right now.
Even so, this book has added to my respect for Black authors who've ventured to write from real, embattled experience, especially in earlier times as they fought against certain myths that were pushed within American society, like the notions that slavery was benevolent and necessary to save and to discipline Black people, and that we were generally content with being oppressed.
Moreover, this book has added to my passion as an author to be a part of sharing a fuller picture of Black peoplehood through fiction, including the gentle, the sparkling, and the upbeat aspects of who we are and the lives we live—because our love, our hope, our light, and our joy are also real. And powerful. Worthy of being written about directly from our experience and perspectives.
From the Introduction of this book:
As we go to the Russians, the Scandinavians, and the French for the truth about their people…we should expect the truth of Negro life from Negroes. The Negro artist has a fine task ahead of him to render this truth in enduring fiction.
Note:
• many mentions of serious violence in published fiction works, including lynchings and sexual assault
• frequent appearances of racial slurs in quoted fiction lines and passages, especially the N-word; all other language kept to a "PG" level show less
Of course, the American literary landscape isn't just the same as it was back when this book was first published in 1937. But one of the main reasons that I as a Black American woman picked this book up is because it's worth remembering that Black literary voices aren't a recently developed phenomenon or just a current "trend" rising in publishing.
Black people have show more always had something to say. And we've been writing and discussing fiction in America for longer than many people may be aware. Even in 1937, there was already quite a history of Black American fiction worthy of exploration, and this author offers commentary on much of it, as well as on depictions of Black people in fiction written by American authors who weren't Black.
Granted, when I mention us having "something" to say, it doesn't mean that Black Americans have essentially only one message or that we all merely echo each other. I reiterate from time to time that the Black experience isn't a narrow one and that neither Black culture nor Black thought are monolithic. I appreciate how this book highlights that, likewise pointing out how racial stereotypes develop and have oftentimes been perpetuated in fiction—when writers possess or convey too little knowledge and too narrow/limited a view of something as nuanced, multifaceted, complex, and historied as a whole people group.
I've read and/or heard of several of the authors discussed in this book, and others I haven't, including most of the Black authors who wrote and published novels before the American Civil War. As for a few among the 20th-century fiction works mentioned in this book that I haven't read, I added them to my list to check out sometime.
However, this wasn't an easy book for me to get through. As the author includes many direct quotes and passages from late 18th-century to early 20th-century American fiction, cruel and ugly depictions of racism are frequent in this book, including details of serious violence and numerous appearances of the N-word and other racial slurs. Also, given that realistic literature in general involves much tragedy, hard living, misery, etc., many of the stories the author discusses here are heavy ones.
I'm not at all new to such material. So I didn't feel I was shortchanging myself when I skimmed or skipped over some of the passages, on account of where my psyche is right now.
Even so, this book has added to my respect for Black authors who've ventured to write from real, embattled experience, especially in earlier times as they fought against certain myths that were pushed within American society, like the notions that slavery was benevolent and necessary to save and to discipline Black people, and that we were generally content with being oppressed.
Moreover, this book has added to my passion as an author to be a part of sharing a fuller picture of Black peoplehood through fiction, including the gentle, the sparkling, and the upbeat aspects of who we are and the lives we live—because our love, our hope, our light, and our joy are also real. And powerful. Worthy of being written about directly from our experience and perspectives.
From the Introduction of this book:
As we go to the Russians, the Scandinavians, and the French for the truth about their people…we should expect the truth of Negro life from Negroes. The Negro artist has a fine task ahead of him to render this truth in enduring fiction.
Note:
• many mentions of serious violence in published fiction works, including lynchings and sexual assault
• frequent appearances of racial slurs in quoted fiction lines and passages, especially the N-word; all other language kept to a "PG" level show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 30
- Members
- 201
- Popularity
- #109,506
- Rating
- 4.0
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 14