The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson, Vol. 1, The New York Age Editorials . - 1914-1923 - book reviews

African American Review, Summer, 1997 by Robert E. Fleming

The first two-thirds of Volume II, as the subtitle states, contain speeches and essays dating from 1915 through 1937. These speeches were delivered at a wide variety of conferences and convocations and range from racial relations to international affairs. Most of the articles appeared in Crisis, while a few first appeared in mainstream publications. The entire text of Negro Americans: What Now?, a book that is difficult to locate, is reprinted, a very appropriate choice.

Considering that this collection bears the imprint of Oxford University Press and that it is likely to become a standard reference work, someone should go over the next printing and eliminate several typographical errors. Perhaps Wilson scrupulously recorded the text before her, reproducing all accidentals. (In the absence of textual apparatus it is impossible to tell.) But Johnson was a perfectionist, and it is hard to imagine his allowing some of the errors reproduced in this edition to appear under his name.

The Selected Writings of James Weldon Johnson fills in many of the blanks in James Weldon Johnson's literary career that could previously be investigated only by those who had access to the Johnson Collection at the Beinecke Library, and in this way it performs a needed service for Johnson scholars everywhere.