James Weldon Johnson
Personal Information
Description
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. In 1920, he was the first African American to be chosen as executive secretary of the organization, effectively the operating officer. He served in that position from 1920 to 1930. Johnson established his reputation as a writer, and was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novel, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture. He wrote the lyrics for "Lift Every Voice and Sing", which later became known as the Negro National Anthem. Johnson was appointed under President Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua for most of the period from 1906 to 1913. In 1934 he was the first African-American professor to be hired at New York University. Later in life, he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University, a historically black university.
Books
The Creation
Colorful pop-up illustrations retell the story of God's creation of the world and everything in it.
The United States in Literature -- All My Sons Edition
The poetry of the Negro, 1746-1970
For other editions, see Author Catalog.
The Book of American Negro Poetry
A landmark anthology of forty poets that brought serious attention to writers such as Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes.
God’s Trombones
The inspiring sermon-poems of James Weldon Johnson. James Weldon Johnson was a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, and one of the most revered African Americans of all time, whose life demonstrated the full spectrum of struggle and success. In God's Trombones, one of his most celebrated works, inspirational sermons of African American preachers are reimagined as poetry, reverberating with the musicality and splendid eloquence of the spirituals. This classic collection includes "Listen Lord (A Prayer)," "The Creation," "The Prodigal Son," "Go Down Death (A Funeral Sermon)," "Noah Built the Ark," "The Crucifixion," "Let My People Go," and "The Judgment Day."
Complete poems
Donated by the estate of Dr. Donald S. Moore.
The autobiography of an ex-coloured man
First published anonymously in 1912, this resolutely unsentimental novel gave many white readers their first glimpse of the double standard and double consciousness-that ruled the lives of black people in modern America. Republished in 1927, at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, with an introduction by Car Van Vechten, The Autobiography of an Ex-0Coloured Man became a groundbreaking document of Afro-American culture; the first person novel ever written by a black, it became an eloquent model for later novelist ranging from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison.
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
"The Auto-biography of an Ex-colored Man," by James Weldon Johnson, is the tragic fictional story of an unnamed narrator who tells the story of his coming-of-age at the beginning of the 20th century. Light-skinned enough to pass for white but emotionally tied to his mother's heritage, he ends up a failure in his own eyes after he chooses to follow the easier path while witnessing a white mob set fire to a black man. First published in 1912, "The Auto-biography of an Ex-colored Man" explores the intricacies of racial identity through the eventful life of its mixed-race narrator. Throughout the book, James Weldon Johnson's protagonist is torn between the opportunities open to him as an apparently white person and his strong sense of black identity. Though he marries a white woman, he lives a life plagued with guilt regarding his abandonment of his heritage as an African-American. James Weldon Johnson's writing is so powerful and believable that many readers took the book for a true autobiography until Johnson acknowledged his authorship in 1914."--P. of cover.
The Books of American negro spirituals
HISTORICAL TEXTS PLUS 2 SONGBOOKS: THE BOOK OF AMERICAN NEGRO SPIRITUALS & THE SECOND BOOK OF NEGRO SPIRITUALS IN THEIR ORIGINAL FORM
Poetry
The United States in Literature [with three long stories] -- Seventh Edition
Selections include: ... - [Young Goodman Brown]( by Nathaniel Hawthorne ... - [An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge]( by Ambrose Bierce ... - [A Pair of Silk Stockings]( by Kate Chopin - [The Cask of Amontillado]( - [Fall of the House of Usher]( - [The Glass Menagerie]( by Tennesse Williams
The United States in Literature -- The Glass Menagerie Edition
Reader includes: [Glass Menagerie]( by Tennesse Williams
Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing
An illustrated version of the song that has come to be considered the African American national anthem.
The essential writings of James Weldon Johnson
"One of the leading voices of the Harlem Resaissance and a crucial literary figure of his time, James Weldon Johnson was also an editor, songwriter, founding member and leader of the NAACP, and the first African American to hold a diplomatic post as consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua. This comprehensive volume of Johnson's works includes the seminal novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, poems from God's Trombones, essays on cultural and political topics, selections from Johnson's autobiography, Along This Way, and two previously unpublished short plays: Do You Believe in Ghosts? and The Engineer. Featuring a chronology, bibliography, and a Foreword by acclaimed author Charles Johnson, this Modern Library edition showcases the tremendous range of James Weldon Johnson's writings and their considerable influence on American civic and cultural life."--Pub. desc.