Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks

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Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks 1917-2000, American poet, b. Topeka, Kans. She grew up in the slums of Chicago and lived in that city until her death. Brooks's poems, technically accomplished and written in a variety of forms including quatrains, free verse, ballads, and sonnets, deal with the experience of being black and often of being female in America. She attracted critical attention with her first volume, A Street in Bronzeville (1945). Brooks went on to win the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Annie Allen (1949), becoming the first black woman to win this award. Her verse was collected in The World of Gwendolyn Brooks (1970), which also includes an earlier novelette, Maud Martha (1953). Her work took on a more radical tone beginning with In the Mecca (1968); the subsequent poems in Riot (1970) are written in street dialects. Her other writings include Primer for Blacks (1980) and To Disembark (1981).

Bibliography: See her autobiographies, Report from Part One (1972) and Report from Part Two (1995).

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Brooks, Gwendolyn

The Oxford Companion to American Literature | 1995 | | © The Oxford Companion to American Literature 1995, originally published by Oxford University Press 1995. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Brooks, Gwendolyn (1917–2000), poet reared in Chicago's slums, whose works include A Street in Bronzeville (1945), lyrics; Annie Allen (1949, Pulitzer Prize), a verse narrative about a black girl's life to maturity in World War II, treating her race's isolation as both spiritual and social; The Bean Eaters (1960), about contemporary black life in the U.S.; and Selected Poems (1963). Later volumes of poetry, more militant in tone but continuing to treat the lives and problems of blacks, include In the Mecca (1968), Riot (1969), Family Pictures (1970), Aloneness (1971), and To Disembark (1982). Maud Martha (1953), a novelette about a black woman's romance, is set in Chicago; Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956) is a book for children; and Report from Part One (1972) and Report from Part Two (1998) collected autobiographical pieces. She was Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress (1985–86), becoming the first African‐American woman named to that post.

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James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Brooks, Gwendolyn." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. 27 Nov. 2009 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Brooks, Gwendolyn." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Encyclopedia.com. (November 27, 2009). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BrooksGwendolyn.html

James D. Hart and and Phillip W. Leininger. "Brooks, Gwendolyn." The Oxford Companion to American Literature. Oxford University Press. 1995. Retrieved November 27, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O123-BrooksGwendolyn.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Gwendolyn Brooks, 83, Who Won Pulitzer Prize For Poetry, Dies.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Jet; 12/18/2000
Free Article Life Works Of Poet Gwendolyn Brooks Celebrated During Memorial Service In Chicago.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Jet; 1/8/2001
Free Article Sweet bombs.(COMMENT)
Magazine article from: Poetry; 10/1/2006

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Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks (1917-2000)
Newspaper article from: Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, The; 1/31/2001; 669 words ; ...Education, The 01-31-2001 Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the nation's most beloved...in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917, Gwendolyn Brooks was a Chicagoan all her...Wallace Stevens, and Ezra Pound. Gwendolyn Brooks' mother encouraged her...
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Gwendolyn Brooks, Chicago's Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet
Newspaper article from: Chicago Defender; 5/26/2001; 700+ words ; Gwendolyn Brooks, Chicago's Pulitzer...Winning Poet As an infant, Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks moved with her...Black Power Movement. Brooks retained this political...from Part Two (1997). Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks died in Chicago...
Gwendolyn Brooks, 83, Who Won Pulitzer Prize For Poetry, Dies.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Jet; 12/18/2000; 700+ words ; ...Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gwendolyn Brooks, who promoted an understanding...to work in the humanities. Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born in Topeka...Sometimes, I feel that my name is Gwendolyn Pulitzer Brooks," she said...
Life Works Of Poet Gwendolyn Brooks Celebrated During Memorial Service In Chicago.(Brief Article)(Obituary)
Magazine article from: Jet; 1/8/2001; 700+ words ; ...acclaimed poet, writer and humanitarian Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks. For nearly three hours, Brooks' family and friends celebrated her legacy...cancer at her South Side home in Chicago. Brooks became the first Black to win a Pulitzer...
Posthumous jewels: Gwendolyn Brooks left us many rich words.(In Montgomery and Other Poems)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: Black Issues Book Review; 1/1/2004; ; 700+ words ; ...Montgomery and Other Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks Third World Press, October...what a joy to discover that Gwendolyn Brooks left us In Montgomery. The...the poet. In "Thinking of Elizabeth Steinberg," she considers...
"The Kindergarten of New Consciousness": Gwendolyn Brooks and the Social Construction of Childhood.(Critical Essay)
Magazine article from: African American Review; 9/22/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...want Queen Latifah. (Brooks, Rep art from Part Two...Report from Part One, Gwendolyn Brooks gives an account of her...Jones) and others, Brooks recognized that "there...including Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, and Randall...
Celebrating the life of Gwendolyn Brooks She wrote about ordinary people with such extraordinary insight.
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 6/6/2003; ; 700+ words ; ...lives on. The legendary Gwendolyn Brooks, in whose honor the...her other collections, Brooks celebrates the joy of...about 6-year-old Elizabeth Steinberg, who died...this day of dedication, Brooks' tribute to sculptor...
FESTIVAL FANS LURK LATE FOR GWENDOLYN BROOKS, OTHER POETS.(Arts and Entertainment)
Newspaper article from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA); 5/9/2000; ; 700+ words ; ...powerfully mournful performance by Gwendolyn Brooks. Chicago's Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for...of the most rakish grins, Brooks took in stride the standing...Typing Explosion Local 898, Elizabeth Austen, Felicia Gonzalez...
Gwendolyn Brooks's Progress
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 4/15/1990; ; 700+ words ; A LIFE OF GWENDOLYN BROOKS By George E. Kent University...characterization of the turn Brooks's work took during this period...Neal "had never felt that Gwendolyn should be militant; Gwendolyn's value, he felt, lay in...

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