Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
James Weldon Johnson enjoyed success as a novelist, poet, songwriter, educator, diplomat, lawyer, and as an official of the National Association for the Advancement o...
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Biography EssayVersatility is the most salient characteristic of the life and career of James Weldon Johnson. Equipped with restless intelligence, abundant energy, and "an abhorrence of spare time," h...
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African American man of letters James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was also a teacher, politician, and lawyer. He is best known for his novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and a book of poems...
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Versatility is the most salient characteristic of the life and career of James Weldon Johnson . Equipped with restless intelligence, abundant energy, and "an abhorrence of spare time," he crowded almo...
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In the following review, Brawley lauds "the simple, direct, and sometimes sensuous expression" of several poems in Johnson's Fifty Years, and Other Poems.
From time to time for th...
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In the following excerpt, Jackson and Rubin recount Johnson 's influential creation of a true black voice in American poetry.
When James Weldon Johnson, putting together his first book of verse...
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In the following essay, Redding investigates Johnson's use of dialect and the "Southern Negro idiom" in his poetry.
In a book entitled Some Versions Of Pastoral, published in 1935...
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In the following essay, Koprince relates Johnson's presentation of women as temptresses or as saintly mothers in the poems of God's Trombones to his impression of Harlem in the 1920s.
Go...
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In the following essay, Fleming suggests that Johnson significantly revised his poem 'Fifty Years ' prior to its publication in order to make it more acceptable to white audiences.
James...
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In the following excerpt, Fleming traces Johnson's development from a writer of conventional poetry to one of experimental free verse in God's Trombones.
During his Atlanta years Johnson...
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In the following essay, Fleming suggests the influence of Johnson 's God's Trombones on William Faulkner's southern black preacher in The Sound and the Fury.
Studies of Faulkner&#...
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In the following review of St. Peter Relates an Incident, Eley summarizes Johnson's career and the significance of his poetry.
James Weldon Johnson's reputation no longer rests—if...
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In the following review, Monroe praises Johnson's God's Trombones as "his own highest achievement as a poet."
For some time Mr. Johnson has been known as a leader among the...
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In the following review, the critic calls God's Trombones "a striking achievement of… reverence."
[God's Trombones] contains what the author calls 'seven negr...
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In the following review, Cullen favorably assesses the poems of Johnson's God's Trombones.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns; and the seve...
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In the following review of St. Peter Relates an Incident, Rosenberg observes that Johnson's conservative poetic temperament undercuts the harsh political realities of his subject matter.
The ti...
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In the following excerpt, Bronz examines the social importance of Johnson 's early poetry in Fifty Years, and Other Poems and comments on his later work as a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance...
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In the following essay, Adelman reflects on Johnson 's life, writing, and contributions to African-American culture between the 1890s and 1930s.
The period running roughly from the 1890'...
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In the following essay, Long surveys Johnson 's poetic works, assessing his evolving notion of "the function of the poet."
The verse output of James Weldon Johnson falls into four...
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In the following excerpt, Wagner explores the conventionality of Johnson 's early verse and describes the poet's ambivalence toward agnosticism and dialect poetry.
Religious and Patrioti...
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When most people think of death they have a negative thought, after all it is the end of their life on earth, but others see it as a freeing blissful opportunity. The poem "Go Down Death" by James W...
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Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
