Christian has produced an impeccably researched and illuminating study of reading and writing during the Harlem Renaissance.
The Harlem Renaissance and the Idea of a New Negro Reader has great appeal for general readers interested in the Harlem Renaissance, the black press, literature of the twenties and thirties, and print culture studies.–Verner Mitchell, author of
This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance Through insightful analysis of newspapers, magazines, anthologies, and even a course syllabus from James Weldon Johnson, Christian reveals an eager black reading public. Recommended.–
Choice Christian's great contribution to our revised understanding of the Harlem Renaissance is that he refocuses our attention on the conditions that African American writers faced in the early twentieth century: a reading public that associated literature with white, largely European poets, playwrights, and fiction writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.–
American Literary History