From Publishers Weekly
Completed shortly before the death of University of Chicago professor Kent, this major study of Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks ends with the death of her mother in 1978. Based on interviews, correspondence and the poet's private notebooks, the biography examines the change in her verse from the formality and traditionalism of her early work to the later inclusion of ordinary speech, loose rhythms and communal reference points that won her a mass audience. Also noted is Brooks's identification and solidarity with the black struggle and the consequences of blacks' "strangerhood" in America. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
This long-awaited volume by the late George Kent is the first full-scale biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Kent carefully chronicles Brooks's aesthetic and political development in relation to familial and literary influences, the Chicago arts community, and the civil rights and black nationalist movements. Brooks is dramatically and critically portrayed as an artist struggling to create a style that reflects the particularities of her own and other black Americans' experiences while conveying a greater universalism in black life and literature. Her achievements as a critic, teacher, speaker, philanthropist, and activist are also emphasized. Enriched by generous quotes from Brooks's early notebooks, as well as anecdotes from the poet, her family, and her friends, this book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Brooks or American poetry.- Deborah Gussman, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Book News, Inc.
This study, by a personal friend and literary associate, locates Brooks within the context of the Harlem Renaissance, the Chicago literary scene, historical developments in black culture and consciousness, and the significant figures and activities that impressed the poet's life and art. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

FROM THE CRITICS

Chicago Tribune

Indispensable to our understanding of this wonderfully significant American poet.

Washington Post

Required reading for Brooks' students and admirers as well as for those interested in the politics of publishing poetry, and of Afro-American writing.

Publishers Weekly

Completed shortly before the death of University of Chicago professor Kent, this major study of Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago poet Gwendolyn Brooks ends with the death of her mother in 1978. Based on interviews, correspondence and the poet's private notebooks, the biography examines the change in her verse from the formality and traditionalism of her early work to the later inclusion of ordinary speech, loose rhythms and communal reference points that won her a mass audience. Also noted is Brooks's identification and solidarity with the black struggle and the consequences of blacks' ``strangerhood'' in America. (Sept.)

Library Journal

This long-awaited volume by the late George Kent is the first full-scale biography of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. Kent carefully chronicles Brooks's aesthetic and political development in relation to familial and literary influences, the Chicago arts community, and the civil rights and black nationalist movements. Brooks is dramatically and critically portrayed as an artist struggling to create a style that reflects the particularities of her own and other black Americans' experiences while conveying a greater universalism in black life and literature. Her achievements as a critic, teacher, speaker, philanthropist, and activist are also emphasized. Enriched by generous quotes from Brooks's early notebooks, as well as anecdotes from the poet, her family, and her friends, this book will be enjoyed by anyone interested in Brooks or American poetry.-- Deborah Gussman, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.

Booknews