Thursday, February 10, 2022

African Diaspora at Internet Archive: Book of Negro Folklore

Last week I shared a wonderful anthology of African American folklore by John Mason Brewer, but his was not the first such anthology. For that, we can turn to the big beautiful anthology assembled by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps: The Book of Negro Folklore, published in 1958.


You'll find the giant list of contents below and in addition to what you see there, the book also contains appx. 100 pages of songs, poetry, and prose "in the folk style" by authors such as Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Hayden, Melvin Tolson, and many others.

As you can see, unlike Zora Neale Hurston, Hughes and Bontemps follow the convention of animal tales coming first. The links below go directly to the book page at the Internet Archive:











Spirituals. The Spirituals / Do, Lord, Remember Me / Motherless Child / City Called Heaven / No More Auction Block / Go Down, Moses / Savious, Don't Pass Me By / Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen / Every Time I Feel the Spirit / Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Steal Away / Deep River / I God a Home in Dat Rock / Where Shall I Be When the First Trumpet Sound? / God's Gonna Set Dis World on Fire / Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep / Joshua Fit de Battle of Jericho / Now Let Me Fly / Get on Board, Little Children / Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet / Sit Down / Rise and Shine / There's a Little Wheel A-Turnin' / Go Tell It on the Mountain / Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow / The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy / Wasn't That a Mighty Day / What You Gonna Name That Pretty Little Baby? / Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? / Delilah / When the Saints Go Marching In 











You can find out more about both Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps at Wikipedia... and now: enjoy! Wherever you jump into this enormous book, I am sure you will find something you will want to read.

 by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps




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