"The Negro in American Fiction" 1937 Analysis of Black Authors and Black Representation in Literature by a Howard University Scholar

Sterling Brown Alain Locke

First Edition

Sterling Brown’s The Negro in American Fiction, an analysis of Black authors and Black representation in American fiction. Published in 1937 as Bronze Booklet Number 6, part of Alain Locke’s adult education program through the Associates in Negro Folk Education. Locke’s editorial foreword calls Brown’s work the “first full-length presentation of this subject.” Brown examines the social attitudes behind successive portrayals of Black life rather than treating literary characters as separate from the racial politics that produced them.

Brown, Sterling A. The Negro in American Fiction. Washington, D.C.: The Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1937. Bronze Booklet Number 6. Editorial Foreword by Alain Locke. First edition. 209 pages. 5.25 x 8.5 inches. Staple bound in illustrated wrappers. Brown begins with the appearance of Black characters in early American literature and follows their development through antislavery fiction, plantation romances, Reconstruction writing, realism, historical fiction, and the work of Black novelists. He distinguishes recurring types and conventions from more closely observed portrayals of Black speech, labor, family life, folklore, and community. A folding table organizes authors and fictional treatments by period and category. The title page identifies Brown as Associate Professor of English at Howard University.

The Associates in Negro Folk Education began the Bronze Booklet series under Locke’s direction in the 1930s. The series' compact volumes presented Black history, art, music, economics, literature, and racial politics for adult readers outside the limits of formal academic publication. Eight booklets appeared, including works by Locke, Ralph Bunche, Sterling Brown, and Eric Williams. Brown studies white authored stereotypes in contrast with an emerging body of Black fiction, showing how literary forms grapple with the American legacy of slavery, segregation, and racial caricature. His parallel 1937 volume, Negro Poetry and Drama, extended the same critical project into other literary forms.

Tape to spine and front wrapper; abrasion from tape removal on rear wrapper; sunning to spine; quarter inch closed tear at head of front wrapper; minor staining and pen marks to front wrapper. Some tearing to title page at staple and abrasion to inner rear wrapper from sticker removal. Binding tight and text clear. Overall fair to good condition. Iowa Wesleyan College library stamps to cover and title page. A study of Black representation in American fiction before the Second World War.

Item #23698

Price: $225.00