Notable African American Writers, 3 vols.(Book review)

Notable African American Writers. Ed. by the Editors of Salem Press. Magill's Choice. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem, 2006. 3 vols. acid free $207 (ISBN 1-58765-272-2).

The scope of Notable African American Writers is coverage of "eighty great novelists, poets, playwrights, short-story writers, and writers of nonfiction from Colonial America to today" (vii). Its purpose is "to help readers to better understand the experience of African Americans and provide an opportunity to examine African American literary culture across history from poet Phillis Wheatley (1753) to playwright Susan Lori Parks (1963)" (vii).

Sixty-eight of the essays in these volumes originally …