Best of the Web: Arts & Humanities » Literature & Linguistics » General Literature Resources » African American Literature

Contains a biographical and critical essay, a selected bibliography of works by and about the author, and links to additional resources.

"The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress presents the papers of the nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher. The first release of the Douglass Papers, from the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division, contains approximately 2,000 items (16,000 images) relating to Douglass's life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant. The papers span the years 1841 to 1964, with the bulk of the material from 1862 to 1895."

This site contains a biography, a bibliography, critical information, and a number of online texts of poems.

Digital images of "ten plays written by Hurston (1891-1960), author, anthropologist, and folklorist. Deposited in the United States Copyright Office between 1925 and 1944, most of the plays remained unpublished and unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997." Can be searched by keyword or browsed by title.

A hypertext edition of the 1850 work, from the University of Virginia.

Home page with a broad range of links, plus biography, criticism, reviews, and e-texts.

A collection of news and analysis of August Wilson from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"As the official publication of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture of the Modern Language Association, the quarterly journal African American Review promotes a lively exchange among writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences who hold diverse perspectives on African American literature and culture."

Part two of an article by Theodore O. Mason Jr. from the Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism website.

Large directory of links to online resources, and a selected bibliography. From the James E. Walker Library, Middle Tennessee State University.

"The goal of the Antislavery Literature Project is to increase public access to a body of literature crucial to understanding African American experience, US and hemispheric histories of slavery, and early human rights philosophies. These multilingual collections contribute to an educational consciousness of the role of many antislavery writers in creating contemporary concepts of freedom."

"The Collaborative Bibliographies were generated from discussion and query threads on T-AMLIT (the "Teaching the American Literatures" discussion list). All of the bibliographies are comprised of the initial query by a member of the discussion list, and subsequent responses to those queries. The responses come in all sizes, ranging from a single line with an author and title suggestion to several paragraphs."

An exhibition at the Schomburg Center provides an overview of the writers and intellectuals in Harlem during the period 1900-1940.

Searchable and browseable collection of full text works by African American authors. From the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Center.

An overview of the period and profiles of eight major figures.