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Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 Edited by James V. Hatch and Leo Hamalian

A valuable contribution to African American literary and theatrical scholarship, this volume is a compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance, brought together for the first time and set in a historical context. Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 features the work of Langston Hughes, George S. Schuyler, Francis Hall Johnson, and Shirley Graham, as well as playwrights whose work is generally unknown. These writers tackled a variety of subjects: war, equality for women, unemployment, lynching, miscegenation, the migration North, racism, religion, theater, and labor unions, in styles as wide-ranging as poetry, farce, comedy, tragedy, social realism, and romance.

"Makes long out-of-print or previously unpublished plays available to contemporary readers . . . . The editors provide a useful introduction, headnotes on each author, and a short bibliography. Of special interest is an appendix containing 20 key articles (written from 1919 to 1928) on black theater."—Library Journal

African American Life Series $29.95s paper / ISBN 0-8143-2580-7 468 pages 1 illustration 1996 For sale only in the United States and Canada