Grade 9 Up–More than 600 essays on novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, publishers, individual works, newspapers, and other publications are included. The volume also has entries for guilds and awards and prizes, as well as venues for literary activity such as the Neighborhood Playhouse and Lincoln Theatre. Writers include well-known figures such as Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay. Scholars such as Alain Locke and Jessie Redmon Fauset warrant longer entries, along with the critic Arnaud Wendell Bontemps and journalist Dorothy West. Each biographical entry is peppered with cross-references, making it easy to find facets of the writers life and work discussed elsewhere in the book. Most notably, well-known novels, plays, and poems have their own entries in which the works are analyzed in terms of characters, theme, and critical acclaim. An entry on Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God, for example, offers a well-written and thorough examination of the novel. Readers can also view a map of Manhattan, where landmarks such as the Cotton Club and Apollo Theater are labeled; captioned black-and-white photos are used sparingly. This well-documented work includes entry and volume bibliographies as well as a selected bibliography of works by leading figures. A one-volume gem.–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY
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