This reader collects sixty of the personal essays, critical articles, and other seminal works of Addison Gayle Jr., one of the most influential figures in African American literary criticism and a key pioneer in the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic Movement. The volume contains selective essays that represent the range of Gayle's writing on such subjects as relationships between father and son, cultural nationalism, racism, black aesthetics, black criticism, and black literature. The collection, the first of its kind, includes definitive essays such as "Blueprint for Black Criticism," "The Harlem Renaissance: Toward a Black Aesthetic," and "Cultural Strangulation: Black Literature and the White Aesthetics." A key chapter from Gayle's autobiography is supplemented by his literary criticism, and a general introduction and editor's notes for each section discuss the articles' lasting significance and influence.

Table of Contents:
Preface   xi Acknowledgments   xv Credits   xvii Chronology   xxi Introduction   xxiii PART 1: BLACK SITUATIONS 1. White Experts -- Black Subjects   3 2. Letter to a White Colleague   8 3. The Cabinet of the Mind   14 4. Nat Turner and the Black Nationalists   24 5. Black Power and Existential Politics   29 6. Black Power or Black Fascism?   36 7. "Hell No, Black Men Won't Go!"   42 8. Racism and the American University   50 9. Dreams of a Native Son   60 PART 2: BLACK AESTHETICS 10. The Harlem Renaissance: Towards a Black Aesthetic   71 11. The Black Aesthetic: The Defender   81 12. Cultural Nationalism: The Black Novelist in America   92 13. Cultural Strangulation: Black Literature and the White Aesthetic   101 14. Separate, Not Mutual Estates   107 15. Reclaiming the Southern Experience: The Black Aesthetic 10 Years Later   116 16. The Negro Critic: Invisible Man in American Literature: An Essay Review   124 17. The Politics of Revolution: Afro-American Literature   131 18. Revolutionary Philosophy: Three Black Writers   139 19. The Function of Black Literature at the Present Time   148 PART 3: LITERARY CRITICISM 20. Blueprint for Black Criticism   159 21. The Function of Black Criticism at the Present Time   170 22. The Critic, the University, and the Negro Writer   176 23. Cultural Hegemony: The Southern White Writer and American Letters   180 24. Gwendolyn Brooks: Poet of the Whirlwind   193 25. A Defense of James Baldwin   201 26. Richard Wright: Beyond Nihilism   207 27. Langston Hughes: A Simple Commentary   212 28. The Literature of Protest   216 29. Literature as Catharsis: The Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar   220 30. The Dialectic of The Fire Next Time   230 PART 4: BOOK INTRODUCTIONS, FOREWORDS, AND PREFACES 31. Youngblood by John Oliver Killens (Foreword)   235 32. 'Sippi by John Oliver Killens (Foreword)   239 33. Five on the Black Hand Side: A Play in Three Acts by Charlie L. Russell (Introduction)   244 34. Forerunners: Black Poets in America by Woodie King Jr. (Introduction)   248 35. Great Gitt'in Up Morning: The Story of Denmark Vesey by John Oliver Killens (Introduction)   258 36. Great Black Russian: A Novel on the Life and Times of Alexander Pushkin by John Killens (Introduction)   265 37. Black Expression: Essays by and about Black Americans in the Creative Arts (Preface)   272 38. Oak and Ivy: A Biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar (Introduction)   280 39. Richard Wright: Ordeal of a Native Son (Introduction)   285 40. Claude McKay: The Poet at War (Introduction)   292 41. The Black Aesthetic (Introduction)   297 42. Bondage, Freedom, and Beyond: The Prose of Black Americans (Introduction)   304 43. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America (Introduction)   308 44. The Way of the New World: The Black Novel in America (Afterword)   319 PART 5: BOOK REVIEWS 45. Two Views of . . .'Winesellers'. . .A Yea Say   325 46. Coming Home by George Davis   326 47. An Open Letter to the Editor of the New York Times Book Review   330 48. Ludell: Beyond Native Son by Brenda Wilkinson   334 49. Onyx Magazine: The Politics of Survival   340 50. Reviews: FLight to Canada by Ishmael Reed/Eva's Man by Gayl Jones   344 51. What We Must See -- Young Black Storytellers edited and introduction by Orde Coombs/The Hungered One -- Early Writings by Ed Bullins   350 52. Blueschild Baby by George Cain   353 53. Love STory Black by William Demby   355 PART 6: AUTOBIOGRAPHIES 54. Addison Gayle: Interviewed by Saundra Towns   359 55. I Endured   381 56. The Son of My Father   389 57. Excerpt from Wayward Child: A Personal Odyssey   400 58. Black Fathers and Their Sons: Part I   413 59. Black Fathers and Their Sons: Part II   424 60. The Children of Bigger Thomas   431 Selected Bibliography   441 Index   445