| University Libraries
There are several ways to obtain primary literary texts by African or African-American authors.
Mason Libraries have great collections by African and African American authors. Check out the boxes below to learn search strategies and review some examples. If you need help with using the Mason catalog, check out the search guide here.
Literature databases are a great source for finding full texts. For help with using the databases, click on the Databases tab in the left navigation bar.
If a book or an article that you're looking for is not available at Mason, submit an interlibrary loan request. For more on this service, click here.
This catalog searches books beyond the Mason libraries. Once you find a book, you can submit an interlibrary loan request so that the library can obtain a copy for you.
Numerous full text literary works are freely available online. Particularly valuable is Google Book Search which points to hundreds of thousands of public domain books that may be downloaded as PDF copies.
As a first step to find literary works by African and African American authors (or authors in general), it is advisable to start what the Mason libraries hold. Here are some suggestions.
For well-known authors, chances are that the Mason libraries have their books.
To perform an author search, go to Advanced Search and enter the author's name such as follow:
The above search will yield more than 800 results. To limit them only to books, select Books from the Resource Types filter from the list on the left. Click here to see the results after the book filter is applied.
For lesser-known authors, you will want to try other keywords such as:
"African American authors" (after the search, select Books. To see the results, click here.)
"African American literature" (after the search, select Books. To see the results, click here.)
"Harlem Renaissance" (after the search, select Books. To see the results, click here.)
African American Authors, 1745-1945 by 
Collected Black Women's Poetry by
These four volumes collect the poetic works of eleven African-American women writing in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Volume 1 presents two collections by Mary E. Tucker Lambert--Loew's Bridge, A Broadway Idyl, a poet's-eye view of lower Manhattan just fter the Civil War, and Poems--and Infelicia, a dramatic work by the notorious Adah Isaacs Menken. Volumes 2, 3, and 4 contain works by nine other poets, all of which were were published between 1895 and 1910, a particularlybrutal era for blacks. But, surprisingly, only one of these women (Lizelia Moorer) protests the treatment of her race during this period of social upheaval and injustice. The remaining poets all conformed to the ethos of most black writers of the time, "whitewashing" their art while educating anduplifting their people. Their themes are traditional--love, nature, death, Christian idealism and morality, and family--and are for the most part couched in conventional forms and language. As interesting for the subjects that they address as for those that they ignore, these selections offer aunique smapling of poetic voices that, until now, have gone largely unheard.
The Complete Poetry by
The beauty and spirit of Maya Angelou's words live on in this complete collection of poetry, including her inaugural poem "On the Pulse of Morning" Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer's remarkable life. Every poetic phrase, every poignant verse can be found within the pages of this sure-to-be-treasured volume--from her reflections on African American life and hardship in the compilation Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie ("Though there's one thing that I cry for / I believe enough to die for / That is every man's responsibility to man") to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in the poem "Still I Rise" ("Out of the huts of history's shame / I rise / Up from a past that's rooted in pain / I rise") to her "On the Pulse of Morning" tribute at President William Jefferson Clinton's inauguration ("Lift up your eyes upon / The day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream."). Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry also features her final long-form poems, including "A Brave and Startling Truth," "Amazing Peace," "His Day Is Done," and the honest and endearing Mother: "I feared if I let you go You would leave me eternally. You smiled at my fears, saying I could not stay in your lap forever" This collection also includes the never-before-published poem "Amazement Awaits," commissioned for the 2008 Olympic Games: "We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for At the lintel of the world we most need. We are here roaring and singing. We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us." Timeless and prescient, this definitive compendium will warm the hearts of Maya Angelou's most ardent admirers as it introduces new readers to the legendary poet, activist, and teacher--a phenomenal woman for the ages.
The Later Simple Stories by 
The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry by
For over two centuries, black poets have created verse that captures the sorrows, joys, and triumphs of the African-American experience. Reflecting their variety of visions and styles, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry aims to offer nothing less than a definitive literaryportrait of a people.Here are poems by writers as different as Paul Laurence Dunbar and W.E.B. Du Bois; Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes; Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka; Rita Dove and Harryette Mullen; Yusef Komunyakaa and Nathaniel Mackey. Acclaimed as a biographer and editor, Arnold Rampersad groups thesepoems as meditations on key issues in black culture, including the idea of Africa; the South; slavery; protest and resistance; the black man, woman, and child; sexuality and love; music and religion; spirituality; death and transcendence.With their often starkly contrasting visions and styles, these poets illuminate some of the more controversial and intimate aspects of the black American experience. Poetry here is not only or mainly a vehicle of protest but also an exploration of the complex and tender subtleties of blackculture. One section offers tributes to celebrated leaders such as Sojourner Truth and Malcolm X, but many more reflect the heroism compelled by everyday black life. The variety of poetic forms and language captures the brilliant essence of English as mastered by black Americans dedicated to theart of poetry.Loving and yet also honest and unsparing, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry is for readers who treasure both poetry and the genius of black America.
The Poetry of Black America by
In 600 poems by 145 authors, this book gives a cross-section of black American poetry writing in the twentieth century.