ABOUT THIS BOOK

In this important new anthology, Venetria K. Patton and Maureen Honey bring together a comprehensive selection of texts from the Harlem Renaissance-a key period in the literary and cultural history of the United States. The collection revolutionizes our way of viewing this era, since it redresses the ongoing emphasis on the male writers of this time. Double-Take offers a unique, balanced collection of writers-men and women, gay and straight, familiar and obscure. Arranged by author, rather than by genre, this anthology includes works from major Harlem Renaissance figures as well as often-overlooked essayists, poets, dramatists, and artists.

The editors have included works from a wide variety of genres-poetry, short stories, drama, and essays-allowing readers to understand the true interdisciplinary quality of this cultural movement. Biographical sketches of the authors are provided and most of the pieces are included in their entirety. Double-Take also includes artwork and illustrations, many of which are from original journals and have never before been reprinted. Significantly, Double-Take is the first Harlem Renaissance title to include song lyrics to illustrate the interrelation of various art forms.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Venetria Patton is an associate professor of English and African American and African studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She is the author of Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction.

Maureen Honey is professor of English and women's studies, also at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She is the editor of Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance and co-editor of "Madame Butterfly" and "A Japanese Nightingale": Two Orientalist Texts by John Luther Long and Winnifred Eaton (both by Rutgers University Press).

REVIEWS

With this new anthology of Harlem Renaissance literature, Patton (Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction) and Honey (editor, Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance), both at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, attempt to "restore and underline the importance of women's writing" and sexual orientation to the Harlem Renaissance. The balanced selection of women and men is similar to that found in Henry Louis Gates's Norton Anthology of African American Literature but the inclusion of lesser-known figures and works is aimed at focusing on the ideology of the renaissance, gay and lesbian themes, and differences in gender-based issues. Countee Cullen, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston are among the authors represented, and the selected works include essays, poetry, prose, and drama, with lyrics and visual art used as illustration. The editors also break with the tendency to define the beginning and end of the renaissance with political events by focusing on specific literary works, which allows them to broaden the period to 1916-37. Both editors have done previous research in the field of African American women's literature and include a biographical sketch of each writer to underline how their gender, class, and sexual orientation shaped their work. Necessary for all academic libraries.

— Library Journal

Double-Take is a thick, rich stew of an anthology. It will compel a reevaluation of our most common assumptions about the Harlem Renaissance. — Deborah McDowell, University of Virginia

With this new anthology of Harlem Renaissance literature, Patton (Women in Chains: The Legacy of Slavery in Black Women's Fiction) and Honey (editor, Shadowed Dreams: Women's Poetry of the Harlem Renaissance), both at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, attempt to "restore and underline the importance of women's writing" and sexual orientation to the Harlem Renaissance. The balanced selection of women and men is similar to that found in Henry Louis Gates's Norton Anthology of African American Literature but the inclusion of lesser-known figures and works is aimed at focusing on the ideology of the renaissance, gay and lesbian themes, and differences in gender-based issues. Countee Cullen, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston are among the authors represented, and the selected works include essays, poetry, prose, and drama, with lyrics and visual art used as illustration. The editors also break with the tendency to define the beginning and end of the renaissance with political events by focusing on specific literary works, which allows them to broaden the period to 1916-37. Both editors have done previous research in the field of African American women's literature and include a biographical sketch of each writer to underline how their gender, class, and sexual orientation shaped their work. Necessary for all academic libraries.

— Library Journal

Double-Take truly is a revisionist anthology - with attention to scores of minor figures, especially women. The essays and illustrations, juxtaposed with poems and short fiction, will allow the student to appreciate the Harlem Renaissance in its multiple dimensions. — Amritjit Singh, author of The Novels of the Harlem Renaissance

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations and Song Lyrics
Acknowledgements
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Chronology

ESSAYS
Alain Locke
A. Philip Randolph and Chandler Owen
William Stanley Braithwaite
Ruth Whitehead Whaley
James Weldon Johnson
Brenda Ray Moryck
George S. Schuyler
Langston Hughes
Amy Jacques Garvey
W.E.B. DuBois
Richard Wright
Zora Neale Hurston
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Marcus Garvey
W. A. Domingo
Randolph Fisher
Elsie Johnson McDougald
Marita O. Bonner
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Marion Vera Cuthbert
Alain Locke
Joel E. Rogers
Gwendolyn B. Bennett

CREATIVE WRITING
James Weldon Johnson
Alice Dunbar-Nelson
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Angelina Weld Grimke
Anne Spencer
Jessie Redmon Fauset
Effie Lee Newsome (aka Mary Effie Lee)
John F. Matheus
Fenton Johnson
Claude McKay
Willis Richardson
Anita Scott Coleman
Zora Neale Hurston
Nella Larsen
Eulaine Spence
Jean Toomer
Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.
Randolph Fisher
Eric Walrond
May Miller
Marita O. Bonner
Sterling A. Brown
Langston Hughes
Gwendolyn B. Bennett
Wallace Thurman
Arna Bontemps
Countee Cullen
Gladys May Casely Hayford (aka Aquah Laluah)
(William) Waring Cuney
Richard Bruce Nugent (aka Richard Bruce)
Dorothy West
Helene Johnson
Mae V. Cowdery

Bibligoraphy
Credits
Index of Writers and Artists