Co-published by Routledge and Edition Synapse Although there are any number of single-volume anthologies on individual writers and movements (e.g. the Harlem Renaissance), African American Writingis the first multi-volume collection to provide users with full coverage of a crucial literary tradition, a tradition that now spans slave texts to novels by Nobel Prize-winning authors, and which is, in the learned editor's words, 'intrinsic to America's self-articulation'. African American Writingis edited by A. Robert Lee, Professor of American Literature at Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan. His expert selection brings together the best and most influential critical assessments, evaluations, and other scholarship in one easy-to-use 'mini library'. Lee has organized the materials into key themes, including 'Manifestos', 'Harlem', 'The City', 'The South', 'Sermons and Political Speeches', 'Crime and Popular Genres', 'The Black Aesthetic Movement', 'Black Theatre', 'The Black Essay', 'Black Modernism', and 'Black Poetry'. African American Writingincludes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, as well as detailed bibliographies and timelines. It is destined to be valued by researchers and students as an essential work of reference.