This sounds awesome, I can't wait to read it!
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Fascinating! And interesting that there could be more by Ann Petry. Meanwhile, surely a work that has not been published belongs to the author's Estate and is in copyright from its publication. Virginia Woolf's novels are out of copyright but her Diaries are in copyright.
5
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. I am curious to know, however, how does one happen to "stumble upon" a forgotten manuscript?
5
@Victoria
People find them all the time. Writers often forget where they left things or died before they did something with them. Sometimes an author doesn't think its good enough and puts it aside. They found two of Melville's notebook on the top shelf of a home in New England. They just found a lost book by Dr. Seuss which just got published. And let's not forget Harper Lee's "Go Set a Watchman. Works are lost and sometimes found
14
There's so much weird stuff in this piece:
Yes, certain pieces published in the 1920s are going into the public domain but copyright is life + 70 years so with the exception of some works in the 1920s, everything by authors who passed away before 1950 is in the public domain.
It is one thing to celebrate the publication but it also possible to be saddened that the author (or his family) will not benefit from it being in the public domain (unless by arrangement with his estate).
And only 1 new ZNH book was published. A collection with previously uncollected (but published in her lifetime) material came out this year.
9
This is William J. Maxwell, @Paul, one of the novel's editors. Just wanted to assure you that Gary Holcomb and I were contracted by the literary agents of the Claude McKay Estate to edit, annotate, and introduce the novel, and that the author's remaining relatives will indeed benefit financially from the book.
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@Paul
Current copyright law is life of author and 70 years after work is created, This is for works created after 1978
4
@Fieldmouse This is lovely to hear! Thank you for the heartening news.
11
New York Review Books and the Library of Congress should prospect foundations for resources to publish neglected works by pioneering African American writers and artists. NYRB list of overlooked writers in Russia and Eastern Europe is impressive. Surely, they can enrich American culture and the African American experience by availing serious readers with these works. I'm awaiting a review by Dwight Garner before I order the book, which I intend to read in May when I'm in France.
14
A very good article, and I've just put a Hold on Romance in Marseille from my library. Can't wait to read it, it sounds excellent.
7
I enjoyed reading the article but had to wonder if it is historically accurate that white philanthropists and their prejudices are the lone reason why Harlem Renaissance literature a century ago may have been closed minded in accepting queer love works of fiction. This seems to brush under the rug a century of struggle within the black intelligentsia and publishing establishment.
21
More, please. Bring it all on....
4
It's amusing that the illustration on the cover of the Penguin edition of the novel suggests that the romance is heterosexual.
20
I'm surprised Ms. Zax failed to mention Claude McKay's most famous piece of writing - the poem "If We Must Die". During the 1960s, this poem was like the Black power movement's anthem:
"if we must die, let it be not like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
Though far outnumbered let us show us brave
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!"
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Read all of Claude Mckay's books and poems, as a child growing up in Jamaica.
Will certainly get this book.
By the way, a School is named after him in his native, Clarendon, Jamaica.
18
This is wonderful news! For all the publishers reading this article, and also shouting out to the academic world, CAN HAVE A REDISCOVERY OF THE INCOMPARABLE WILLIAM MELVIN KELLEY?!? I need for teaching and reading a collection of all his short stories in one place yesterday! Please and thank you!
7
To describe the Claude McKay as writing about "queer" love is an anachronism. To the author, that word would have been a grievous insult -- as it still is to most gays around the world, despite its "appropriation" by trendy academic elites.
36
@ianwriter Are you only referencing gay men with your use of the term as a noun? What about lesbian women? Bisexual people? Trans people? The Q in LGBTQ? Language is not set in stone. Even yours right here would be considered anachronistic in some circles due to its conspicuous male centering or feminine exclusion (take your pick), while I'm sure you can recognize the potential validity of any retort you might have with respect to the overly precise nature of my response.
The author addresses the audience using the language of now -- probably the best approach when understanding is desired. The anachronism you refer to would exist if such love didn't exist at the time of the book's setting; but it obviously did (at least as a concept) since the author wrote about it at that time.
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@Dani F.
You are correct of course about recognizing the vast spectrum of human sexuality as it is currently defined. As language and understanding of human sexual response are highly mutable, linguistic additions and alterations are inevitable. Soon we will exhaust the 26 letters afforded by the Roman alphabet and be forced to move on to cuneiform to accommodate everyone. I would have thought "Q" pretty well covered it for the non-hetero normative, cisgender crowd, thereby simplifying the labeling system. When I mentioned this to a professor of queer theory when the letter "Q" first appeared in the litany, she informed me that "Q" doesn't stand for "queer", but for "questioning".
2
There is only one race aka human.
There is only one human race national origin aka Earth.
There are only two procreative human genders aka female and male.
There is only one American caste and class that was physically identifiable enslaved and separate and unequal aka black African American.
There was no closet where the likes of Claude McKay, Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes could hide their black African American identity.
14
@Blackmamba Succinctly put.
2
Interesting article.
1
I was introduced to Harlem Renaissance while attending a small catholic university in Texas in the mid-seventies. The professor was a stout nun named Sister Ann. Her passion for this literature and era was boundless and was able to impassion her students as well. Thank you, Sister Ann.
48
Thank you for this review. I look forward to reading this novel.
9
Wow! This is a well written and well researched article. As a scholar who writes about the Harlem Renaissance, I am thrilled to see attention paid to the importance of archival materials.
41
It's also worth noting that Claude McKay was a traditional poet of abiding interest. I'm glad he's coming into view again.
19
I read the entire article and some of the characters described in the review sound very interesting, at least, to me. I went to Amazon and it's available for 'pre-order' now, coming out on Feb. 11th. Obviously, not one single review; yet. I put it in my cart, this sounds like an extraordinary adventure of sorts to me, I'm looking forward to it's arrival! I don't need a review for this book, the article sold me on the author already!
19
Great important article. Thanks. But don't conflate the Renaissance with the Harlem Renaissance—discredits both. The Harlem Renaissance is special on its own terms.
10
Thank you to these scholars. The literary canon is bigger than we know.
25
This is so exciting! Students appreciate a more diverse and complex canon. I’m teaching Baldwin and next up is “The Street.” My students’ hearts and brains are swelling.
21
I belong to a generation that came of age when gay people were barely visible. Our generation accomplished little of which to be proud. One of the few good things we did was to start listening to gay people.
22
So many books and authors to rediscover.
Exciting times
12
What are the copyright restrictions applying to manuscripts lying dormant in archives and attics? Who holds back the copyrights since the author is long dead? Overprotecting "private property" after the person is gone is so counterproductive. It is preventing a manuscript from going public and finding readers which, after all, is its intent and purpose. It also prevents the author from gaining possible (post mortem) recognition and fame, another kind of capital. Or were these manuscripts held back by families or estates because of "moral" reasons, fear of tainting the name of families and descendants?
5
@tdb
Copyright is just that, the right to make (and sell) copies.
Copyright belongs to the creator and his/her heirs. Copyright is legally considered personal property and is treated as such for 72 years. After that the work is in the public domain and can be used by everyone/anyone.
5
@sjs
PS. The copyright exist the moment an original work exist in tangible form. However, sometimes it is difficult to prove just when a work was created which is why people register a copyright with the US government.
@sjs
PS. The copyright exist the moment an original work exist in tangible form. However, sometimes it is difficult to prove just when a work was created which is why people register a copyright with the US government. I should add that for works created after 1978, copyright exist for the life of the creator and an additional 70 years
2
A friend turned me on to John Oliver Killens (another member of the Harlem Writers Guild) about ten years ago. I read two of his epic novels: Youngblood and And then We Heard the Thunder. When I checked them out from the library, I was told no one had check them out in 20 years. What a travesty! These brilliant writers are ignored. Would we be further along with race relations if more of these novels were mainstream? I would like to think so but perhaps I am naive. Sigh....
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I don’t think you’re naive. People who want to know more, learn more. You must have thrilled that librarian! I feel like I don’t have enough time to read all I want to read. You are not alone.
14