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Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940

Edited by James V. Hatch and Leo Hamalian

African American Studies, Art, Theater

African American Life Series

Paperback
Published: October 1996
ISBN: 9780814325803
Pages: 468 Size: 6x9
Illustrations: 4 black and white images
$31.99
eBOOK
Published: October 1996
ISBN: 9780814338339

This compilation of sixteen plays written during the Harlem Renaissance brings together for the first time the works of Langston Hughes, George S. Schuyler,
Francis Hall Johnson, Shirley Graham, and others. In the introduction, James V. Hatch sets the plays in a historical context as he describes the challenges presented to artists by the political and social climate of the time. The topics of the plays cover the realm of the
human experience in styles as wide-ranging as poetry, farce, comedy, tragedy, social realism, and romance. Individual introductions to each play provide essential biographical background on the playwrights.

In the continuing rediscovery of writers and works from the Harlem Renaissance, Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance 1920-1940 serves as essential background for contemporary readers and is a valuable contribution to African American literary and theatrical scholarship.

Published by: Wayne State University Press

Leo Hamalian, a Ph.D. from Columbia University, is a professor of English at The City College of New York. He has written or edited more than one dozen volumes, including As Others See Us and In Search of
Eden, and is currently editor of Ararat.

James V. Hatch is a professor of English at the City University of New York. A Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, he edited Black Theatre in the U.S.A., 1847-1974 and Black
Playwrights, 1825-1977: An Annotated Bibliography.

Makes long out-of-print or previously unpublished plays available to contemporary readers .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