Complete Poems of Frances E.W. Harper

by Frances E. W. Harper, Maryemma Graham

Overview

Frances Harper was renowned in her lifetime not only as an activist who rallied on behalf of blacks, women, and the poor, but as a pioneer of the tradition of 'protest' literature, whose immense popularity did much to develop an audience for poetry in America. This collection of her poems is drawn from ten volumes published between 1854 and 1901. Their main issues are oppression, Christianity, and social and moral reform. Consolidating the oral tradition and the ballad form, and merging dramatic details and imagery with a strong political and racial awareness, Harper's poetry represented a distinctly Afro-American discourse that was to inspire generations of black writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195052442
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/14/1988
Series:	The ^ASchomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	8.77(w) x 5.83(h) x 0.92(d)

Editorial Reviews

"Probably the first black woman to make a living from her writing."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. quoted in the Washington Post Book World

From the Publisher