The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) is an anthology by James
Weldon Johnson. Alongside some of his own poems, Johnson includes the
work of such legendary artists as Paul Laurence Dunbar, W. E. B. Du
Bois, Jessie Fauset, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Carefully selected and
supported with a masterful preface by Johnson, the poems herein reflect
a range of voices, styles, and subjects drawn from tradition and
experience alike. In his preface, Johnson justifies his anthology by
identifying its vital purpose: "The public, generally speaking, does not
know that there are American Negro poets--to supply this lack of
information is, alone, a work worthy of somebody's effort." And the
effort was his. In his poem "O Black and Unknown Bards," he asks "O
black and unknown bards of long ago, / How came your lips to touch the
sacred fire?" Recognizing the need for a reconciliation between the long
tradition of black culture and the overwhelming erasure of his own
contemporary artists, Johnson highlights the efforts of those poets who
"Within [their] dark-kept soul[s], burst into song." Like Johnson
himself, many of the poets included in The Book of American Negro
Poetry work in a variety of voices, moving expertly from dialect to the
traditional lyric in poems that harness the spirit of song and sermon
alike. To borrow the words of Joseph S. Cotter Jr., a poet included in
this anthology, these poems are elemental in their power to rejuvenate
an exclusive national culture, and they "Rise and fall triumphant / Over
every thing." With a beautifully designed cover and professionally
typeset manuscript, this edition of James Weldon Johnson's The Book of
American Negro Poetry is a classic of African American literature
reimagined for modern readers.
