Pilgrim Journey

"This book describes the rich and varied influences on the author's life and poetry: the black Baptist church; the books lining her minister father's study; her meetings with outstanding African Americans such as ministers Charles A. Tindley, composer of 150 hymns, and S.S. Jones, who had the vision to know that black life in Oklahoma was important to record on film; poets and writers Countee Cullen, Sterling Brown, and Oscar Micheaux; and her lifelong acquaintance with Langston Hughes." "Begin with her birth at the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. Grow up with her during the Great Depression, which, in spite of its negative effects, still allowed many joys of a Thirties childhood. Laugh with her about childhood pranks, and witness her emergence as a precocious poet whose first poem was published at the age of thirteen. Witness the contrast in her early years as the only black child in her class in one of the most racist cities of the North and her adolescence in all-black historic Sumner High School in St. Louis. Follow her to Virginia State College during World War II, and then to Detroit in 1946 as a young bride. Get to know her family. Share her beliefs and values, and understand the positive impact she has had on others through her poetry, her teaching, and her editing and publishing of numerous books by other African American poets."--BOOK JACKET.Madgett, Naomi Long is the author of 'Pilgrim Journey' with ISBN 9780916418977 and ISBN 0916418979.