Book Description
From 1920 to 1940, the Harlem Renaissance produced a bright beacon of light that paved the way for African-Americans all over the country. The unapologetic writings of W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey, the fervent fiction and poetry of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, the groundbreaking art of Aaron Douglas and William H. Johnson, and the triumphant music of Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong gave voice and expression to the thoughts and emotions that Jim Crow segregation laws had long sought to stifle.
In On the Shoulders of Giants, indomitable basketball star and bestselling author and historian Kareem Abdul-Jabbar invites the reader on an extraordinarily personal journey back to his birthplace, through one of the greatest political, cultural, literary, and artistic movements in our history, revealing the tremendous impact the Harlem Renaissance had on both American culture and his own life. Beginning with the rise of the Harlem Rens as pioneers of professional basketball, Kareem traces the many streams of historical influence that converged to create the man he is today -- the NBA's all-time leading scorer and a veritable African-American icon.
Travel deep into the soul of the Renaissance -- to the night clubs, restaurants, basketball games, and fabulous parties that have made footprints in Harlem's history. Meet the athletes, jazz musicians, comedians, actors, politicians, entrepreneurs, and writers who not only inspired Kareem's rise to greatness but an entire nation's.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was born in the midst of a cultural reawakening, carried on the shoulders of athletes trying to prove there was a lot more at stake than a ball game, men and women who made music that could break your heart, and writers and intellectuals who gave voice to not just the ideals of a movement but the raw emotions. Kareem tells what it took to get these revolutionaries to Harlem and how they changed the world. A world that is still riding on the shoulders of giants.
Customer Reviews:
A lovely and important piece of writing.......2007-07-11
On the Shoulders of Giants speaks of a bygone, sometimes forgotten piece of America and its culture that nevertheless has great, reaching tentacles into our present, and that will continue to shake and embrace us well into our future. Beautifully written, with a title that says it all, this book is just as evocative and fascinating for non-sports, non-jazz fans as it will undoubtedly be for those entrenched in both subjects.
A wonderful discovery.
This book is a great view into the history of NYC & Harlem.......2007-04-16
Especially interesting are the musicians and music that originated or passed through Harlem during this time.
Memoir and History.......2007-04-12
The Harlem Renaissance continues to contribute to society today, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar explains why in this memoir.
Standing on the Shoulders of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.......2007-04-06
If the winner of six NBA championships and just as many MVP Awards wanted to write a book of passable reflections on the Harlem Renaissance and make it sound like a big deal when it wasn't, he could probably get away with it. Fortunately, that's not what Kareem Abdul-Jabbar chose to do in "On the Shoulders of Giants." He took the opposite route, providing readers with a superior work of lively history, passionate memoir, keen social commentary, and entertaining musical appreciation.
Dozens of books on the Harlem Renaissance have hit the shelves since the 2003 publication of Facts On File's Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance . Few (if any) have illustrated as precisely as "On the Shoulders of Giants" exactly why and how the Harlem Renaissance remains a vibrant cultural and spiritual force. Like other competent authors on the subject, Abdul-Jabbar provides literary snapshots of the major players and events that produced the Harlem Renaissance. Unlike other books, his gives us something more. He includes chapters on how elements of the Harlem Renaissance directly impacted the development of his own life as a son of Harlem and that of others who picked up where the Renaissance left off and kept it going in other forms.
The world knows Kareem Abdul-Jabbar mostly as a champion athlete. In "On the Shoulders of Giants," we meet him as the teen-aged scholar Lew Alcindor working beside famed educator Dr. Henrik Clarke. With Dr. Clarke, Abdul-Jabbar helped publish a weekly journal on Harlem and discovered how his birthplace earned the title "The Capitol of Black America." We see the youth inspired by the world famous Harlem Globetrotters give up his dream to play professional baseball in exchange for a plan to conquer basketball. We meet the great lover of classic black literature, the connoisseur of jazz, and the defender of his beloved community.
Aside from his individual highly informed observations of the Harlem Renaissance proper, Abdul-Jabbar also offers some daring interpretations of the movement. Take, for example, his contention that "The Harlem Renaissance didn't end... [it] pried open a lot of reluctant doors and those who came after learned how to shoulder those doors open even wider. The guiding principles of the Harlem Renaissance survived and flourished." Towards that end, he cites both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., as products and embodiments of Harlem Renaissance ideologies. This writer agrees with that assessment.
As important as "On the Shoulders of Giants" is for what it says about the past, it's even more important for what it indicates about the present and the future.
by Aberjhani
author of The Harlem Renaissance Way Down South
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Harlem that I didn't know existed.......2007-03-26
It is an eye opening account of Harlem. I didn't realize that Harlem had such a diverse group of writers, musicians, singers, etc. A very eye opening book.
Book Description
The first book in the Circles of the Twentieth Century series which focuses on writers, artists, poets, hostesses and patrons who played a role in moderism as we know it. Watson explores the lively and fascinating people who helped bring about what became known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
Customer Reviews:
It's good.......2006-06-28
This is a worthwhile and well-researched book. It is more scholarly than I expected, and as a result, it took me a while to get fully engaged in. By the time I got to the section discussing the jazz artists, it was hard to put down. I was familiar with most of the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance to some extent. The book painted a more vivid picture of many of them, and gave keen perspectives on the social and economic milieu that helped to shape the period. It was fascinating to read about some of the interlocking relationships, in particular the relationships between Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Charlotte Mason. Examples such as this changed my notion of writing always being an insular profession. The men and women of the Harlem Renaissance benefited by each other's support as well as competition.
Outlined the experience but no depth.......1998-06-12
In my journey to explore the Harlem Renaissance, I started with this book. I felt the author gave a good basic view of the era but he left out the soul. He focused on six or seven primary personalities of the time, from Langston Hughes to Zora Neale Hurston, and tied the times into their existence. I was left feeling like there had to be more about the era. The author also chases around issues of major character homosexuality, stating it but not really being clear about it. I was ready for it to end.
This book is informative, entertaining, coherent........1998-02-07
I read this book in hardcover as well as several others for a paper I wrote. The author was able to take the disparate threads of musicians, artists, writers and benefactors who contributed to the Renaissance and weave together a chronology that contained pictures, specific information about the "hotspots" in Harlem and complete, sometimes intimate portraits of all concerned. If the Harlem Renaissance was ever to be depicted in a movie, this book would be a ready-made screen play. The hardcover edition is worth the extra money.
Their Eyes Were Watching God= A Great Book!!.......1997-11-03
I really enjoyed this book. I had to read it for an english class. At first I thought it was going to be hard to read and dumb due to the dialect, but as I read further into the book, I found out what a great book it was and why it was on the required reading list. I would greatly recommmend reading this book to any one who hasnot. It deals with a black woman's search for indeoendence over 25 years and 3 marriages. It is a great book and gets TWO thumbs up from me!!!
Customer Reviews:
Informative.......2006-08-16
Honestly, the book is a a difficult read in some spots. Some items may require a second reading just to make sure the point is taken the way it is meant by Schwarz. That said, it is not an impossible read. Usually, Langston Hughes is the primary focus of such detailed scharlarship. This book examines Nugent, Cullen, and McKay who were, in their distinctive ways, just as important as Hughes in contributing to the Harlem Renaissance. All men were gay and dealed with their sexuality in print in a the mannor comfortable to them. Hughes, Cullen, and McKay employed Whitmanesque techniques and Nugent was completely unguarded in his sexual proclivities. For me, that Hughes and Nugent were both gay and yet showed different tastes in men and how they dealed with their sexuality is so interesting. The two men are the same and yet polar opposites of one another. Anyway, the reader will be happy with this book. Such work as Schawrz provides a new way of reading and re-reading these important figures in general literature and adds to the growing study of literature by gay African Americans, an under represented and all to often overlooked area of study.
A valuable contribution to black and queer studies.......2006-07-18
I'm not sure why the other two reviewers found Christa Schwarz's Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance difficult to read. I find Schwarz's prose clear and natural and her organizational scheme transparent. More important, Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance is a valuable contribution to black and queer studies--Schwarz's scholarship is impressive and thorough. Until this book appeared, the critical question of how queer genealogy intersected with the New Negro literary movement tended to be localized in debates over individual authors, such as the question of Langston Hughes's sexual orientation. But Schwarz's book does much more than merely consolidate archives into a single text. Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance performs the necessary labor of demonstrating that to talk of the Harlem Renaissance is to speak of the beginning of the queer revolution in the U.S., to suggest that among the emancipatory products of the New Negro was queer counterculture. The significance of Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance cannot be understated.
Not So Quiet Gay Voices!!!.......2005-07-06
A.B. Christa Schwarz's GAY VOICES OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE isn't an easy read. Barring the first two chapters, "Gay harlem and the Harlem Renaissance" and "Writing in the Harlem Renaissance....Burden of Representation and Sexual Dissidence," the remaining chapters will need a second or third reading for a coherent understanding for those interested in her discussion.
Ms. Schwarz looks at the work of three male writers from the period who are given their own chapters: Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Richard Bruce Nugent. Of these writers, Cullen, Hughes, and McKay are identified as using
Whitmanesque techniques to express in coded forms their desire for those members of their own sex. For the none initiated, Walt Whitman often changed male gender specific pronouns in his poetry to the feminine form for public consumption. Bruce Nugent was the only one of this group out and open, to some extent, with his sexuality in work and life, even during the down low days in his marriage of comformity.
Of the writers featured here, Countee Cullen is known to have had a few affairs with black and white men as Claude McKay. Cullen was the only one to envelope much of his work in the traditional European framework. Even his funeral many years later was staid in the European tradition of ceremony, contrary to the funeral of Langston Hughes who embraced his blackness in a funeral ceremony far, far away from the white American and
European traditional dogma and form. Langston Hughes wrote primarily for a black audience, celebrated his blackness with radical pride, and avoided with great distaste the traditional European style in the framework and subject matter of his body of work. This should come as no surprised after reading Arnold Rampersad's meticulously researched biographies of Hughes, particularily Vol. 2 where in three uncommom moments absent
of sexual prejudice Rampersad states Hughes's "preference" for black men as evidenced by Hughes's work and "life" (the label of Rampersad being entirely homophobic is not totally fair to him). Schwarz has this in mind when making the comment that in many of Hughes sea/sailor poems, race isn't specified because of the camaraderie of sailors of different nationalities which is in synch with Hughe's socialism poetry of the 1930's. Claude Mckay had the most in common with Hughes in terms of radical black pride and a like of the "low life" or common working class black, but his foreigner status as a Jamaican also made him an outsider to Harlem both figuratively and literally; he chose Greenwich Village as a primary residence and spurned many of the Harlem black intelligentsia. McKay was the only real bisexual of the bunch who had affairs with men and women, black and white, domestic and foreign. Yet, as many of his coded gay references appeared to indicate, he could be harsh toward white society in gerneral. Richard Bruce Nugent was the only openly gay black man of the men in this book who did not employ Whitmanesque techniques to conceal his interest. He was open and primarily showed an interest in white men and white Latin men in his work and life, the complete polar opposite of Langston Hughes. Sadly, Ms. Schwarz fails to grasp an accurate understanding of the work SMOKE, LILLIES, AND JADE whose protagonist is black, not white or of underminded race. This bias is disturbing and ignores on her part that its inclusion in the short lived FIRE!! that was devoted to works "by," "about," and "for" black Americans (i.e. Negros circa 1920's). Two, she fails to realize that "Beauty," the Latin object of desire in the story is a composite of Langston Hughes, Harold Jackman, and Valintino.
The book isn't an easy read, but it is a worthwhile read providing one shows patience and at least a little knowledge of the subjects other than that of their surface persona. Incidentally, the cover is based on Cullen's poem "Tableau" where a black and white man are portrayed as walking hand in hand at the surprise and disgust of onlookers, black and white. The painting was designed by Jacob Lawrence.
A Must for everyone interested in the Harlem Renaissance.......2003-09-04
A. B. Christa Schwarz wrote a really learned book. Maybe it's the only way a German scholar can write. Not always easy to read it's a interesting study to read not only for literary historians. The study is a must for everyone interested in the Harlem Renaissance as a literary phenomenon. Schwarz focuses on Countze Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay and Richard Bruce Nugent. Readers learn a lot about Alain Locke as well. Locke played a leading role in the Harlem Renaissance. Maybe Schwartz' next book will tell us more about Locke. We are waiting for it.
Book Description
Born to a Danish seamstress and a black West Indian cook in one of the Western Hemisphere's most infamous vice districts, Nella Larsen (1891-1964) lived her life in the shadows of America's racial divide. She wrote about that life, was briefly celebrated in her time, then was lost to later generations--only to be rediscovered and hailed by many as the best black novelist of her generation. In his search for Nella Larsen, the "mystery woman of the Harlem Renaissance," George Hutchinson exposes the truths and half-truths surrounding this central figure of modern literary studies, as well as the complex reality they mask and mirror. His book is a cultural biography of the color line as it was lived by one person who truly embodied all of its ambiguities and complexities.
Author of a landmark study of the Harlem Renaissance, Hutchinson here produces the definitive account of a life long obscured by misinterpretations, fabrications, and omissions. He brings Larsen to life as an often tormented modernist, from the trauma of her childhood to her emergence as a star of the Harlem Renaissance. Showing the links between her experiences and her writings, Hutchinson illuminates the singularity of her achievement and shatters previous notions of her position in the modernist landscape. Revealing the suppressions and misunderstandings that accompany the effort to separate black from white, his book addresses the vast consequences for all Americans of color-line culture's fundamental rule: race trumps family.
Customer Reviews:
The Wrong Woman.......2006-12-03
I enjoyed Dr. Hutchinson's book on Nella Larsen, the enigmatic nurse who wrote two marvelous novels in mid-career and then, took up her tents and wrote no more. Wow, does he lay into Larsen's two previous biographers! Sometimes it seems as though the whole purpose of him writing this book is to serve as a massive corrective to what he sees as their stupidity, their errors, their evasions, their sloppy thinking. This gives the book a lot of energy, and perhaps prompted Hutchinson to perform some brilliant feats of detective work. For example, he was able to prove that Nella Larsen actually did live in Denmark, for others had doubted her stories of a childhood in Copenhagen, seeing the purported fantasy as yet another manifestation of her self-hatred and the way she wanted to be white, not black.
It is thrilling indeed to get the whole picture of this complex life, even at the expense of the two previous biographers who must now forever lay at Hutchinson's feat, their every inanity exposed to a sneering public. And yet, as he knows, without these two having done so much groundwork, such as locating and interviewing friends of Larsen's now lost to us through death, he wouldn't have been able to accomplish zilch. So his triumph is clouded by a blur of ironies, as I'm sure he appreciates, ironies worthy of a Larsen novel.
I enjoyed especially Hutchinson's calm treatment of Larsen's final years, which saw her leave literature and the "glitterati" of the Van Vechten circle behind, in favor of a nursing career, which most people have seen as a terrible tragic turn of fate, and now under Hutchinson's treatment, he's very persuasive that being a nurse isn't, perhaps, such a bad thing at all, for nurses help people nearly as much as, perhaps more than, we novelists do. He is occasionally overgiven to speculation, such as his suggestion that "it is not unlikely" that Larsen chose night duty (while nursing) because she could "control and cover her drinking habit better that way." Why is it not unlikely? Does this mean that it is likely? How do you know, Dr. Hutchinson? And what about the part where, because one personage receives an unexpected visit on a Saturday, does that indicate that the visitor most likely worked on weekdays? Excuse me?
All in all, essential reading for anyone interested in either the Harlem Renaissance or in the life of American nurses in midcentury.
Unveiling Nella Larsen.......2006-07-20
Nella Larsen was an enigmatic writer of the Harlem Renaissance, whose background has been highly speculated by other biographers, Charles Larson and Thadious Davis. George Hutchinson's superb biography of Nella Larsen puts to rest a lot of the speculation about Ms. Larsen's background. Mr. Hutchinson unveils some of the more complicated issues regarding Larsen's relationship with her mother and family, her life in Denmark, and her obscurity as a writer after the Harlem Renaissance. By thoroughly examining the papers of Carl Van Vechten, passenger ship logs, and other archives untouched by previous biographers, Hutchinson gives voice to the complicated negotiations regarding race that plagued Larsen during an era when the color line figured so prominently in most American's lives. Hauntingly told and beautifully written, this biography of Nella Larsen is essential to not only putting her life in perspective but also for enriching any reading or teaching of Larsen's novels. Hutchinson places Larsen, the writer, and her works within the center of the Harlem Renaissance, and he contextualizes Larsen and her work within the larger modernist moment when Larsen meets Frederico Garcia Lorcas during his brief stay in New York when he was studying at Columbia. Even biographers of Lorca have neglected to put a face to the "Negroes" that Lorca wrote about as being the only authentic and uncorrupted aspect of U.S. culture and life that he found palatable. Hutchinson's biography paves the way for refiguring Larsen and the significance of her work to both the African American and American literary canons.
Thought provoking and well researched .......2006-07-02
This very elegant and academically excellent work was thought provoking. It should prove of great interest to anyone interested in the reality of life for black women facing the societal restrictions of the past. It provides both a unique perspective and a story that draws the reader to this dynamic historical figure and her place in history. The author provides extensive documentation of his resources and uses even the most ordinary of life's details to show the influence of color on the life and times of an extraordinary woman.
Average customer rating:
- Easy Race Relations
- One of my favorites.............
- Dave at Night
- Excellent!
- Dave at Night Book Review
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Dave at Night
Gail Carson Levine
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
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ASIN: 0064407470
Release Date: 2001-02-19 |
Amazon.com
"Gideon the Genius" and "Dave the Daredevil," their father called them: two Jewish boys growing up in 1920s New York, playing stickball and--in Dave's case--getting into trouble. But when their father dies, Dave finds himself separated from his older brother and thrust into the cold halls of the HHB, the Hebrew Home for Boys (which he later dubs the "Hopeless House of Beggars" and the "Hell Hole for Brats," among other things).
Eager to escape the strict rules, constant bullying, and tasteless gruel of the orphanage, the Daredevil hops the wall one night to explore the streets of Harlem. He hears what he thinks is someone--or something?--laughing, but traces the sound to a late-night trumpeter shuffling backward into a wild "rent party." And just as quickly as he'd found himself stuck in the HHB, Dave is immersed in yet another world--the swinging salons and speakeasies of the Harlem Renaissance. Cramped, crazy parties packed with the likes of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen give Dave refuge from life at the orphanage and awaken his artistic bent. And Dave's new friends, among them a grandfatherly "gonif" ("somebody who fools people out of their money") and a young "colored" heiress who takes a shine to him, help turn things around for him at the HHB.
The skilled Gail Carson Levine, Newbery Medal-winning author of Ella Enchanted, clearly tells this tale from her heart, as the story is based on her own father's childhood spent in the real-life HOA (Hebrew Orphan Asylum). (Ages 8 to 12) --Paul Hughes
Book Description
If nobody wants him, that's fine.He'll just take care of himself.
When his father dies, Dave knows nothing will ever be thesame. And then it happens. Dave lands in an orphanage -- the cold and strict Hebrew Home for Boys in Harlem -- far from the life he knew on the Lower East Side. But he's not so worried. He knows he'll be okay. He always is. If it doesn't work out, he'll just leave, find a better place to stay. But it's not that simple.
Outside the gates of the orphanage, the nighttime streets of Harlem buzz with jazz musicians and swindlers; exclusive parties and mystifying strangers. Inside, another world unfolds, thick with rare friendships and bitter enemies. Perhaps somewhere, among it all, Dave can find a place that feels like home.
Customer Reviews:
Easy Race Relations.......2007-07-04
Dave is eleven when his father dies, leaving him with his brother and their stepmother. Their stepmother insists she can't handle raising the boys, so their uncle agrees to take Dave's quiet and smart older brother. Nobody steps forward to take Dave, though, so he is sent to live at the Hebrew Home for Boys, an orphanage.
Dave is devastated about being in the home, and things don't go smoothly for him there. A bully sits next to him at meals and eats half of his food. Instead of teaching, his teacher simply lectures about what a chore it is to try to teach orphans. And the headmaster of the school steals a carving done by Dave's father and then beats Dave when confronted about it.
One night shortly after arriving, Dave leaves the home after lights-out and explores the city. He stumbles upon an amazing party where he meets Solly, a strange fortune-telling man who tells everyone Dave is his grandson. Dave also meets Irma Lee, a beautiful black girl about his age. She seems as enthralled by him as he is by her.
As the weeks pass, Dave comes up with a plan to run away from the home. The only problem is that he is starting to like it there. He likes the boys his own age, who stick up for each other and are better than family. He likes his art teacher, who recognizes that he has real talent. And Dave even has a plan for taking care of the bullies at meals. Will he stay after all?
Solly's character was great; he had such interesting reactions to Dave and great interactions with the people at the parties. Dave's buddies at the home were also good characters. I liked that they were able to make a kind of new family and support system for themselves.
I don't know if it was realistic for whites and blacks during this time period to mix as easily as they did in this book. This story seemed to indicate that there was no animosity between the races and everyone would be accepted in Harlem. I found that hard to believe.
One of my favorites....................2007-03-26
This is one of my favorite books! I enjoyed it alot, to be compleetly honest with you at times it was a little boring but then the excitment would come and everything would show up.Like hey now that makes cense.This book is one that you can not belive that a story so big of greatness could be in a small book.Dave at night is not just a children's story it is for everyone.I got hurt when dave got hurt, when Dave cried i cried inside, when he fights i feel like punching the one he is fighting.Oh yes you are more into this book than tv shows that are just so good get you into their story.You are,almost Dave in Dave at night you are like his soul.This is an incredible story.
DAVE AT NIGHT
I am if woundering not Melanie Litzinger i am Carly Litzinger age:11!
Dave at Night.......2006-10-25
This book is about an orphane named Dave. His father had fallen of a roof and died. When he came home from school he was in dinile. His step-mom Ida had every one come to their house after the funeral. Well while they were all there she desided that she could care for Dave and his brother. But no one wanted to take Dave because he was to loud. The boys' uncle took Daves brother with him when he left. So Ida Deicide that DAve was going to live in an orphange. Before his brother left he gave Dave a carving that their father had made. But when he got to the room and looked in his suitcase it wasn't there. Well it turns out that the owner of the HHB,the Hebrew Home for Boys, took the carving.
Thats when dave deiced that when he got the carving back he was going to leave. The first night he was at the HHB he snuck out to a park and met Solly. They became friends and went to rent parties. So after the first party Dave went back to the HHB. And every night after that he stuck out and met up with Solly and his "girlfriend" Irma Lee. But he still wanted to get the carving before he laft so he went back to there every night till he can get the statue. If I tell anymore I'm going to ruin it so You'll have to read it and find out.
This was an awesome book I thought. If you like it you wont be able to put it down till tour done.
Excellent!.......2006-09-07
When Dave's father dies, he is sent to the cold, gritty orphanage 'The Harlem Home For Boys' (the HBB). Levine tells her tale with warmth and humor, and creates a memorable and well developed cast of characters. Dave is an engaging hero who will linger in the memory of the reader.
Dave at Night Book Review.......2006-03-08
DAVE AT NIGHT
Dave at night is about a young boy named Dave. He is living with his Dad, step mom and brother in an apartment in England. His Dad dies unexpectedly when he falls off of a ladder. His step mom can't support the family so Dave's brother had to live with his uncle and Dave has to go live at the Hebrew Home for Boys (HHB for short). There with a couple hundred other boys, he is given little food and a meager education. He is an orphan now but some of the other boy's parents visit sometimes and bring food to them. Dave brings a boat that was carved by his Dad with him to the HHB and Mr. Bloom of the HHB steals it. Dave sneaks out one night and meets a man by the name of Solly who takes Dave to a party. There he meets a young African American girl by the name of Irma Lee. They become instant friends and Irma invites Dave and Solly to her mom's party. Dave sneaks back into HHB and is caught. He is beat and sent to classes once more. Solly comes to HHB and says he is Dave's grandfather. They go to Irma's party and have a good time. When Dave gets back to the HHB, he and his buddies plan to steal the boat that Mr. Bloom stole. When Mr. Bloom leaves his office, Dave sneaks in and gets the boat. As he is leaving Mr. Bloom comes in and catches him. Dave is about to be in serious trouble when Irma Lee's mom, Mrs. Packard saves the day. She catches Mr. Name and gets him fired. The HHB gets better food, better teachers and a new furnace. In the end, Dave is happy.
Book Description
Introduction by Arnold Rampersad.
Langston Hughes, born in 1902, came of age early in the 1920s. In The Big Sea he recounts those memorable years in the two great playgrounds of the decade--Harlem and Paris. In Paris he was a cook and waiter in nightclubs. He knew the musicians and dancers, the drunks and dope fiends. In Harlem he was a rising young poet--at the center of the "Harlem Renaissance."
Arnold Rampersad writes in his incisive new introduction to The Big Sea, an American classic: "This is American writing at its best--simpler than Hemingway; as simple and direct as that of another Missouri-born writer...Mark Twain."
Customer Reviews:
"Sometimes life is a ripe fruit too delicious for the taste of man.".......2007-09-30
Published when Hughes was 38, the subject of The Big Sea is the period of his life from 1902-1939. It covers a wide variety of episodes in Hughes' life, with key elements being his travels as a youth, his relationship to his father, and the Harlem Renaissance.
I knew his poetry, of course, from all those years as an English major. I have not had the occasion to read any of his prose, and decided to pick this up after reading the collected works of Nella Larsen.
There was a lot to engage with in The Big Sea. I particularly liked Hughes' description of the Harlem Renaissance. His tone when he talked about it was affectionate and wistful, but still acknowledged the limitations that it had as a lasting solution. There were many great stories ("never hit a woman") and fascinating details-- reproductions of the whist party invitations, for example.
I also really was interested in the way that Hughes discusses his father and the issue of the race. His father left the US (first to Cuba, then to Mexico) in order to avoid race prejudice. His father had nothing but scorn for people of color who stayed in the US and subjected themselves to the inevitabilities of race and class limitations. The anger that this self-imposed exile cost him comes out in his dealings with his son and the way in which he engages with the world around him.
At points, it is as though Hughes is meditating on all the different ways that people around him (including him) have used to address the race problem. It is not the most uplifting of sketches, since none of the various paths seem (according to Hughes) to be a good or lasting solution.
Well-written, interesting, and with many pointers to further reading.
Must read.......2007-05-12
I read this as an assignment in college and found it wonderfully painful in its realism and truth. A must read for every American, regardless of what ethic origin.
The journies of a Hero.......2006-07-17
"On a radio show, he (Hughes) defended the right of trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who had long faced the white world with a broad grin, to vent his racial anger."
Like Armstrong, Hughes also faced the same world with his broad smile. Throughout the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER, there in the texts of both autobiographies is the ever smiling Hughes. Other than the people he met and the foreign lands he visited---all making for great and entertaining reading--- very little is revealed about the man he was. His larger than life personae masked a man who was only 5'4 in stature, closeted gay
because being open would have meant a short career and ostracism, especially in the African American community who was a refuge from a racially hostile world and who Hughes loved with an unmatched passion back in his day, and, according to the late Gwendolyn Brooks who had known Hughes since the age of 16 wrote in a New York Times article that when Hughes was subjected to offense and icy treatment because of his race, he was capable of jagged anger - and vengeance, instant or retroactive. She has letters from him that reveal he could respond with real rage when he felt he was treated cruelly by other people.
Both autobiographies do a great job at documenting the world in Hughes' day. The most fascinating thing about the first book of his life is the Harlem Renaissance and the people who moved in it during its illustrious height. Till this day, the BIG SEA provides one of the best sources of this important period in American culture. Few people realized that if not for best friend Arna Bomtemps the autobiography may have never been written. Bontemps encouraged Hughes to write the book. Up to that time, few blacks, especially black males, had seen and done what Hughes managed to do. Plus, the book challenged stereotypes about black America in general. The challenge he had in writing the book was how to write for two audiences, white and black. Characteristically, Hughes did not pander to the white audience, "I do not hate `all' white people," nor did he distance himself from and sacrifice the racial pride his grandmother taught him to have for his people, who he primarily wrote for. In the second autobiography, Hughes is on the road again and much more time is given to his travels, especially in the then Soviet Union. Absent are his communist sympathies. Like many blacks of the day, socialism was preferable to segregation. Blatant is the unspoken critique that in the absence of capitalism, everyone man is "equal." As far as romance is concerned, scholars have noted Hughes'rather perfunctory and insincere rendezvous with the very few woman he talks about in these autobiographies. Quite understandably, Hughes attempts to pass himself off as having all the accoutrements of straight men. His situation with the over zealous Russian woman who he does not portray favorably in I WONDER AS I WANDER is interesting. She is portrayed as the Duboisian woman whose association with black men destroys them. Plus, Hughes did not favor interracial marriage so it is peculiar that he proffered the idea in the text of bring the Russian woman home as a wife as she wanted.
The above quote was from Volume 2 of Arnold Rampersad's biography of Hughes. What made Hughes' defense of Armstrong so intriguing is that Hughes also reveals much about himself and what lied behind the mask he wore. The readers of the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER will not see the man behind the mask. They are largely presented surface, a fleeting glimpse of Hughes here and there. A scholar said to really understand Hughes, one must read Rampersad's two biographies. This scholar was partially right. But, don't dismiss these autobiographies! They are worth the read and are a enjoyable read. Time and interest permitting, do read LANGSTON HUGHES Vols. 1 and 2 by Rampersad for balance also read Faith Berry's LANGSTON HUGHES: BEFORE AND BEYOND HARLEM. Reading these latter biographies with the two autobiographies by Hughes, one will be presented the man Langston Hughes was: proudly African American, gay, brave, smart, ambitious, often very angry, and often lonely.
Hughes doesn't reveal much of himself, but his autobiographies are still 5 star ratings because like his work they continue to inspire and for everyone, especially young blacks in the inner city, let them know that they can overcome any obstacle in life so long as the desire and determination is there.
Great!!!!.......2005-09-27
Even though my book got lost in the mail, I was still able to get my money back. Thank you very much. I hope I have the chance to buy another book from you.
A wonderful memoir.......2003-12-04
Langston Hughes was a wonderful poet and story teller so it is not surprising that his autobiography/memoir is a joy to read. He tells the story of his life by giving us delightful episodes that each read like short stories. Each chapter has the structure of a short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Along the way, the reader has to be amazed at the texture and breadth of his life adventures. He lives for a short time in Mexico with his father, in several cities with his mother and other relatives, and then his wonderful sea going adventures in Europe, Africa, and also his stay in Paris. The reader also gets a first hand glimpse of what it was like to be "Negro" in America as well as in other places in the world. The writing is bright and energetic and the book is very difficult to put down. I highly recommend it to anyone who might be thinking about writing an autobiography or memoir.
Amazon.com
The Wedding, Dorothy West's first novel in almost 50 years, is ably brought to life in this finely nuanced audio version. Writer and actress Regina Taylor (Courage Under Fire, Lean on Me, and TV's I'll Fly Away) uses her considerable talent to show off West's sensual and elegant prose to full advantage. The Oval, an elite African American community in 1950s Martha's Vineyard, sets the stage for the story of the impending nuptials of Shelby Coles, the golden-haired, fair-skinned youngest daughter of the neighborhood's leading family. Shelby's intended groom is Meade Tyler, a white jazz man with a far less upscale pedigree than his bride. (Like many grooms, Meade plays little role in the pre-wedding drama; the snippets of jazz that frame the reading are about as close as listeners get to meeting him.) Sparks fly in the few dozen hours before the wedding, when one by one those close to Shelby come to her to make a case for or against the controversial match. As new characters are introduced, Taylor succeeds in giving each a distinct personality through her reading.
Shelby is dragged through a crisis of identity, while West skillfully steers listeners through an examination of the tangled and painful meanings of race and class in the United States, themes that still resonate today. Taylor's reading deftly renders the subtle distinctions between the characters and their backgrounds without ever descending into stereotype. (Running time: about 180 minutes, two cassettes) --Naomi J. Cohn
Book Description
The publication of The Wedding by Dorothy West, the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, was not only a landmark literary event, but a commercial success as well. Readers across America responded to West's delicat weaving of North and South, black and white, past and present in this "fascinating and engrossing tale" (People) of race and class set in Martha's Vineyard.In her first novel in forty-seven years, West offers a window into the rise of the black middle class as she lived it. Wise, heartfelt, and shattering, The Wedding is Dorothy West's crowning achievement, and one of the last books edited for Doubleday by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
Customer Reviews:
a literary gem.......2007-04-26
Dorothy West only wrote 2 novels--One during
the height of her Harlem Renaissance fame,
and the last one in 1997. Sadly, Ms. West
did not live so that myself and other fans
could thank her for this literary classic.
The story of Shelby Coles and her color-struck
family is a timeless tale of sorrow, redemption,
and the sacrifices that one must make for love.
Words cannot express how much I enjoyed this book,
and the movie version with Halle Berry is one
of my all-time favorites.
Ms. West's eye for characterization is remarkable
in her depiction of black middle-class life during
the 1950's. Her lush descriptions of Martha's Vineyard
invokes the spirit of a Romare Bearden painting.
Though her characters are flawed, she brings
dignity and artistic integrity to black literature.
This book is HIGHLY recommended and a timeless gem!
From a pioneer of the Harlem Renaissance.......2007-03-11
This is a fast-moving novel, one which turns issues of class and race on its head. Written from the perspective of the Black Elite, West addresses the pitfalls of the color line and the drama involved in defining the gradations. Set in the 1950s, this slim little novel is packed with a role-reversal of what one would see in white literature of the time (concerning race).
In The Wedding (which has very little to do with an actual wedding), a family saga emerges and we are given a family tree with which to (re)construct the ideas of class and race within the Coles family. The book speaks to mixed marriage, "passing," and elitism to name just a few.
If for no other reason, this book should be read because its author was one of the first contributors to the Harlem Renaissance. Though she wrote this novel well into her old age, the prose comes across as very young and fresh. It's an intriguing piece that will give you something to think about.
Race, class, love, and sex.......2006-08-05
Perhaps the last surviving major figure from the Harlem Renaissance, Dorothy West was coaxed to write this lovely short novel by her fellow denizen of Martha's Vineyard Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (who was also her editor until her death a few years before the novel's publication). It's a charming lyrical work whose brevity belies its complexity. It's a very sophisticated study of how decades of Americans of all races in social and financial struggle form a generational underpinning to the wedding of Shelby Coles, the beautiful scion of a well-to-do African-American family on "The Oval," a black bourgeois island community based based on the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. Shelby's forebears, as West shows us, have tied themselves in knots over distinctions of race and class that sometimes overlap and that sometimes are at odds with one another; the question becomes whether or not she can manage to strike for herself in a new manner or repeat both the mistakes and successes of her sister, parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. West is a superb stylist as well as social commentator, and the writing is gorgeous and extremely thoughtful. The book is hurt only by its hurried ending, which seems to force a realization in Shelby that ties everything together too neatly.
New book for me.......2005-03-09
I recently read this novel after hearing about it for years and missing the movie starring Halle Berry. I was pleased with the story, and I can see why Oprah Winfrey adopted it into a television movie. It is a heartwarming story about a time in our history that has not been forgotten. Mrs. West is a strong writer and a true renaissance talent.
Barbara Joe-Williams
Author of "Forgive Us This Day"
Shelbert review.......2004-12-14
When I first started reading the Wedding, I was a little bit worried that this book would be too hard for me. Their was a lot of big vocbulary. It was very challenging at times, but trust me don't be discouraged. When you finally get to the end of the book you will feel amazing. You will feel like you just made the biggest accomplishment. The Wedding has many different generations, and a lot of different characters. There is always a new event going. You won't stop reading from page one because you will want to know ho it ends up. So read the book, give it a shot.
Average customer rating:
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Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance
Jr., Houston A. Baker
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Similar Items:
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The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White
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The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism
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Cane
ASIN: 0226035255 |
Book Description
"Mr. Baker perceives the Harlem Renaissance as a crucial moment in a movement, predating the 1920's, when Afro-Americans embraced the task of self-determination and in so doing gave forth a distinctive form of expression that still echoes in a broad spectrum of 20th-century Afro-American arts. . . . Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance may well become Afro-America's 'studying manual.'"—Tonya Bolden, New York Times Book Review
Average customer rating:
- Geared for kids but still informative
- Young adults (and even older ones!) will love this book
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Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance
Laban Carrick Hill
Manufacturer: Little, Brown Young Readers
ProductGroup: Book
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Similar Items:
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The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920-1930 (Circles of the Twentieth Century Series , No 1)
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Mean Spirit
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Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America
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The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (African American History (Penguin))
ASIN: 0316814113 |
Customer Reviews:
Geared for kids but still informative.......2007-08-09
This seems geared for the junior high school crowd, but there are still great pictures and it's pretty stuffed with information. Worthwhile buy.
Young adults (and even older ones!) will love this book.......2004-03-04
This book is a visual feast and a joy to browse; the graphic design captures the energy of the Harlem Renaissance. It's like a scrapbook jammed with "rent party" tickets, dinner programs, book covers, letters, playbills, song lyrics and more. There is something here to capture the interest of even reluctant readers.
But the text also shines. The story of how and why Harlem came to be is told clearly and without mincing words: we learn the glorious achievements in art, music, theater, literature and just plain survival, but we also learn of the racism haunting the era, and the infighting within the Black community itself. I think readers will appreciate this honest, realistic approach, which brings the era to life.
By the way, given the graphic beauty of this book, the price is a steal!
Book Description
Harlem Speaks showcases the lives and works of the artists, writers and intellectuals behind the stunning outburst of African American culture in the three decades after World War I. In the tradition of the New York Times bestseller Poetry Speaks, the book combines each subject's key works with biographical and critical essays by leading Harlem Renaissance authority Cary Wintz and other experts. The integrated audio CDs feature music, poetry and literary readings, interviews, radio broadcasts, discussions and speeches, bringing the Harlem of legend to vibrant life once again.
Hear, see and read the best of:
Langston Hughes Claude McKay Zora Neale Hurston Richard Wright Duke Ellington Ethel Waters Josephine Baker Marcus Garvey Alain Locke and more
The audio also includes never-before-released interviews conducted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Levering Lewis. Evocative and encompassing, Harlem Speaks places you at the zenith of this vital cultural movement.
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