From Harlem to Paris: Black American Writers in France, 1840-1980 - Softcover

Fabre, Michel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252063643 ISBN 13: 9780252063640

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1993

Synopsis

Black American Writers in France, 1840-1980; 'The list of individuals profiled in this thoughtful, eye-opening study is a veritable who's who of black America literature...By discussing the effects of both world wars and the ideologies of the Harlem Renaissance, the French Negritude movement, and Black Power in Paris, Fabre enriches our understanding of black history, culture, and art on both sides of the Atlantic.'

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

This plodding, academic study uses accounts from more than 60 African American writers--Countee Cullen, James Baldwin, Chester Himes et al.--to explain why they were more readily accepted socially in Paris than in America. Fabre ( The Unfinished Quest of Richard Wright ) shows that French/black American affinity started in pre-Civil War New Orleans (and not, as the title suggests, in Harlem), when illegitimate mulattos with inheritances from French slave-owners sent their children to Paris to be educated. The book concludes that acceptance and appreciation of black Americans were based largely of French distaste both for white Americans, whom the French found egotistical, and for black Africans, with whom the French had a bitter "mutual colonial history." Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

This book breaks new ground in social and literary history. Fabre re-creates an important moment of African American literary history and sheds new light on the historical origin of the atmosphere that peaked during the Harlem Renaissance in France. Beautifully documented and comprehensive in size and scope, it tracks down every possible source. Essentially, we see here the writers we expect to see from W.E.B. DuBois to James Baldwin, along with many other largely forgotten authors. Essential for academic libraries.
- Gayle S. Leach, Wayne State Univ., Detroit
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0252063643
• ISBN 13: 9780252063640
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 358