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The classic volume by the distinguished modern poet, winner of the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and recipient of the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, showcases an esteemed artist's technical mastery, her warm humanity, and her compassionate and illuminating response to a complex world.

Customer Reviews (10)

One of the greatest American poets
Brooks is a poet whose best known poems actually conceal her greatness from readers of poetry. To know Brooks by "We Real Cool" is just like knowing Williams by the wheelbarrow poem and the plums in the fridge. This is crazy!

I'm hard pressed to think of a standard that anybody could use to judge poetry and not understand that Gwnedolyn Brooks is one of the greatest American poets ever. In her many years, she managed to be everything: imaginative, weird, gorgeous and difficult language, a populist who is also a master at dislodging language from the commonplce, hard-nosed, unafraid of unpleasantness, moving, funny at times, a master of tone, personal and social, a master of form, and a master of free verse. She is a category buster, and frankly, next to her work, its variousness and there-ness, even post-WW2 poets who are amazing are a little less impressive, a bit goofier and egoistic.

She is also an example of a poet who really changes throughout her life & who is great at every stage of it.

Great Collection of a Modern Social Poet
Various editions of "Selected Poems" by the late Gwendolyn Brooks are floating around, most of which only have differences in layout or binding. All have the core poems that defined Brooks as one of America's poets with a social conscience.

In the spirit of Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes, and occasionally, Robert Frost, her poetry meets the reader head-on. However, to Brooks' credit, and what makes her a great poet, is she sees the big picture, just her greatly skilled colleagues listed above.

Brooks was black. She neither hid it, nor would be ashamed that I said so. Many of her poems revolved around the issues impacting African Americans, both the responsibility they have, as well as an acknowledgment of the difficulties they endure because of racism and cultural differences.

Her poems will survive (and are worth reading today) because they were not shackled to the political milieu of the day. What she wrote in the 1940s, when racism was bolder and more detrimental than today, matters.

She was current, yet eternal. Even though "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till" refers to a young man murdered decades ago, the reader without that context will still appreciates its common-spoken depth (her indents are diminished in my copy below because of the software to post this):

after the murder,
after the burial

Emmett's mother is a pretty-faced thing;
the tint of pulled taffy.
She sits in a red room,
drinking black coffee.
She kisses her killed boy.
And she is sorry.
Chaos in windy grays
through a red prairie.

Award-winning, and well-celebrated toward the end of her life, Brooks complete collection of poems is a valuable lesson in compassion, speaking with strong poetic voice, and honesty. For the reader looking for an introduction to Brooks' poetry without having to work through the vast complete works would do well to start here.

I fully recommend "Selected Poems" by Gwendolyn Brooks.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Dissappointed...
I like Gwendolyn Brooks. But I like poetry that tells a story more and this book didn't have much of it.My favorite poem was "Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat" because it was more my style of poetry, a hidden story being revealed by every line.I just wasn't feeling the poetry in this book. It seemed a little dry.I love "We Real Cool" and classics like that, but I don't feel this book showcased Brooks' ability to tell a story and recite a poem at the same time.

My Comments
This is a wonderful book for both children and adults. If you like poems, then you should definetly read this book.

Gwendolyn Brooks is Magnificient
Five stars!If I had to choose the ten greatest books of the twentieth century, Brooks' Selected Poems would have to be one of them.Her voice is entirely original - no one who came before Brooks or follows her writes quite like her.Brooks' work is distinguished by so many wonderful qualities - she may have the best ear of any living American poet.Her sense of the musicality of language rivals that of Yeats and Dylan Thomas (as in, say, "A Sunset of the City," "We Real Cool," "Big Bessie throws her son into the street, and her great long poem, "Riot."). I once heard Gwendolyn Brooks read over twenty years ago when I was in college, and I still haven't forgotten the sound of her voice, and with it the dawn of my understanding that poetry is half-music, half-language.Brooks is also capable of that kind of clarity and brilliance of imagery that you find in the best William Carlos Williams Poems.(Read, for example, "The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till" or "My Little `Bout Town Gal").What has always been most special about her work for me, however, is the way Brooks captures nuances of feeling, multi-layers of emotion, in a few phrases, as in hervery contemporary poem about abortion, "the mother," or her love poem, "A Lovely Love."The only other poet I know of who does this so well is Emily Dickinson. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

Ms. Brooks best writings
This book contains some of Gwendolyn Brooks best poetry. It is definitely a keeper!

Late Great American Writer's Collection of Standards
Its been a few years since I thought about this book. I was searching around suggested items from Amazon, and memories of this great writer came rushing back to me.This book is a collection of poems, short stories, a novel, highlights from several decades of excellent writing.I wish Chicago would do more to honor her like Europe honors their great writers regardless of race.Anyway, Ms. Brook's poetry is influenced by the classical literature she studied during her time and she takes that style to the south side of inner city ofblack Chicago.The results are poems that feel quiet, calm, much like the demeanor she displayed when she was alive. However she can communicate anger, depression , anguish, without hitting you across the head with it. This changes a little when you read through some of her sixtites work such as the "Riot" which describes the riot in the sixties after Dr. King was assasinated. I find myself missing her reading "We real cool" but at least I have this and other books from her memory alive in me.

Excellent poetry
A collection of poetry by Brooks, probably the most honored African- American poet. It also includes "Maud Martha," Brooks' single novel to date. I liked the novel, but felt it was a little too much for me. I like poetry, but I think I like it in small doses, where I can relax and read and reread it without concentrating on how much time it is taking me to do so. Her fiction is like poetry, in the sense that it had as much to do with the vision of things as it did with the characterization or the plot. This is my failing as a reader: I've never cared that much for description, and the longer it continues, the more likely I am to tune out.

But the short poems here, especially from her earlier period, I like a lot. The subjects are strong and powerful, the economy and purpose of the prose admirable. One of my favorites was a poem called "Queen of the Blues," which contrasted the stage persona of a Billie Holliday-like singer with the treatment she receives as an African-American woman. Queen or no queen, she still has the blues. Or "The Murder," about a young boy who sits his toddler brother on fire then doesn't understand when the little brother isn't around afterwards. I did not care as much for her later poems, which were much more experimental in form and harder to follow in content.

Brooks has "a long reach, / strong speech"
"Blacks" is a collection of several decades' worth of the work of Gwendolyn Brooks, who is one of the most significant figures in 20th century American poetry. At over 500 pages long, "Blacks" is a truly monumental text. Included are several books in their entirety ("Annie Allen," "In the Mecca," etc.) as well as excerpts from some later books ("Primer for Blacks," "The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems," etc.). Although most of the books represented are works of poetry, "Blacks" also contains the text of Brooks' 1953 novel "Maud Martha."

Brooks is a stylistic virtuoso, proficient with the sonnet, ballad, free verse, and other forms. She is an expert with alliteration, rhyme, and other musical effects. Her vocabulary is encyclopedic; she evokes not only African-American vernacular speech, but also the entire sweeping history of the literary tradition in English. In this collection are both short poems and longer poems.

Many of Brooks' poems deal with aspects of African-American life. She writes of anti-Black violence and other forms of racism, and reflects upon enduring figures in African-American cultural history. She also writes of family relationships and intimate personal crises.

Her novel, "Maud Martha," is a poetic chronicle of the life of a dark-skinned urban Black girl. We follow Maud Martha through her girlhood, marriage, and motherhood. "Maud Martha" is a memorable vision of an African-American woman's life, and, in my opinion, should stand beside such literary works as Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl," Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God," and Audre Lorde's "Zami."

Of Brooks' long poems, I found the most memorable to be "In the Mecca," a tragic and haunting narrative poem that takes place in a Chicago apartment building. "In the Mecca" is a sort of urban, African-American "Odyssey" in which we encounter the various inhabitants of this world.

In her poetic tribute to Langston Hughes, Brooks writes that he has "a long reach, / strong speech." I would say the same of Brooks. Her amazing body of work deserves to reach into the 21st century and beyond.

Sweeping and Epic
Gwendolyn Brooks is one of my favorite poets and this anthology of her work gives a glimpsing answer to the question 'why?' "Blacks" is a veritae encyclopedia of the America experience written in Brooks' lucidbut unsettling style.

It's people like T.S Eliot which make us think artis an inclusive privilege of a born, elite few. And then artists -likeBrooks- go right along and prove that, at its best, art is inclusive, funand thought-provoking. Rather than tying itself up in esoteric knots,Brooks' poetry flows along personal but recognizable paths that most blackshave experienced at one time or another.

I go to Northwestern U. andwe've had the privilege of her speaking at our school many times. And aftermeeting her my respect only grew.

Forever "young, gifted andblack" Gwedolyn Brooks deserves nothing less than the attention givento the likes of Langston Hughes or Phylis Wheatley. This books shows uswhy. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (5)

maud martha book review
contents of book fine. advertised as "like new"; that was not the case. condition was good, except there was a sticky residue on cover of book, as well a a large inventory sticker on the back cover of the book, which if removed would have torn the cover. as the wise man said, "caveat emptor".

Great Turnaround!
The book was in perfect condition, but I was most impressed with the shipping time. I had tried to order this from two other bookstores, a neighborhood bookstore and another giant, and both of them had serious trouble getting the book from the publisher. With Amazon, the book was on my doorstep two days later. THANKS!

Maud Martha - A Rare Gem
I first read Brooks's only novel in a graduate seminar--because I was forced to read it. I had never read anything quite like it. The artistry is amazing, and the story is one that had to be told. Of course, those familiar with Brooks's wonderful poetry, particularly the Pulitzer Prize winning ANNIE ALLEN (1949), will see the strong parallels between her poetry and MAUD MARTHA. I've taught the novel in my American literature and African American literature courses. Students love it! It's a classic tale about self-discovery that makes it an enjoyable read for anyone who enjoys well-crafted poetic prose.

For all you Gwendolyn Brooks Fans
"Maud Martha" is a wonderful novel and a definate must read, for it addresses issues of growing up, but it also tackles race issues in the US. I found the previous customer review passionate, but for those of you waiting for Brooks's next book, you should know that Gwendolyn Brooks, who is known more as a poet, passed away this year. She lives on in her poetry, however. I suggest the book "Selected Poems" by Gwendolyn Brooks.

MUST READ!
Oh, how I wish the wonderful Ms. Brooks would write more novels!

First of all, Maud Martha was written very economically which has caused me to gain a greater appreciation of poetry and concise speaking.

Secondly, Maud Martha is not only written to a female or adult audience,but it speaks to all people of different age groups, races, or walks oflife.

I appreciate Gwendolyn Brooks for her nobility and classic style. Hope to see at least one more novel from her.

I have already passed ona few copies of Maud Martha. This has gone on to being my favoritebook...EVER! ... Read more

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Beautiful and Fascinating Reflection
I truly enjoyed reading "Report from Part Two" by Gwendolyn Brooks.I read the book as part of the research I did for a school project and I was fascinated by the stories and poems I found within.The book iswritten in fragments that combine to form a remarkable image.We learnabout Gwendolyn Brooks through her reflections on those around her, andrevel in the beautiful prose and poetry she bestows on the reader.A greatread for anyone even remotely interested in this wonderful poet! ... Read more

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In 1956, Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks created a collection of poems that celebrated the joy, beauty, imagination, and freedom of childhood. She reminded us that whether we live in the Bronzeville section of Chicago or any other neighborhood, childhood is universal in its richness of emotions and experiences. And now a brand-new generation of readers will savor Ms. Brooks's poems in this stunning reillustrated edition that features vibrant paintings by Caldecott Honor artist Faith Ringgold.

Customer Reviews (1)

A tip of the hat to an all time great
We needn't act so surprised that the great twentieth century American poet Gwendolyn Brooks wrote books of poetry for children.What could be more natural?This poet shares her gifts with the small people that inhabit her hometown (in this case, Chicago).What did surprise me was the original publication date of this title.Now I read through this entire collection of urban poetry and I had a fairly clear idea that these poems must have been written in the 1970s.After all, collections of poems featuring African-American children were just beginning to blossom after the Civil Rights movement.I was feeling pretty smug until I glanced at the date in question.1956.So roughly twenty years before the United States understood the importance of creating children's literature for people from all walks of life, Gwendolyn Brooks was taking matters into her own hands.

"Bronzeville Boys and Girls" collects thirty-four short poems about children into a single compendium.Each poem contains the name of a child.This child is either the subject of the poem, or the person delivering it.Taken as a whole, the book feels like nothing so much as a slightly updated series of nursery rhymes.Brooks is an accomplished poet and there is something about the way her lines scan that feels old and established.Take, for example, this poem entitled, "John, Who Is Poor"."Give him a berry, boys, when you may/ And, girls, some mint when you can/ And do not ask when his hunger will end/ Nor yet when it began".For me, these poems acknowledge the struggles that all children, regardless of race, face in the world's poverty laden big cities.Though most the poems have an element of whimsy or light-heartedness to them, many are socially conscious.The boy who does not receive what he wants for Christmas reflects, "To frown or fret would not be fair/ My Dad must never know I care/ It's hard enough for him to bear".You won't find any poems about some of the harsher aspects of city living (drugs, prostitution, etc.) that are so common these days, in part because this book was published so very long ago.Also, it is written with a distinctly young age group in mind.Accompanying Ms. Brooks's verses are various illustrations by Ronni Solbert.The combination of words with images felt almost like a predecessor to Shel Silverstein at times, though I'd be hard pressed to tell you exactly why.It's just something about the occasional silliness of the children pictured.

At the moment, the big urban nursery rhyme crowd pleaser is the accomplished, "The Neighborhood Mother Goose".But that book just restructures old nursery rhymes for contemporary kids.Gwendolyn Brooks went so far as to create new and exiting nursery rhymes for the children of her day and age.Today, most of them read as crisp and clearly as they did the day they were made.There are some exceptions, of course.A couple poems feel a little stilted or overly formal towards the kids reading them today.But many are fine examples of superior writing.If you ever find that you are able to locate a copy of "Bronzeville Boys and Girls", I suspect that you will not regret the fact any time soon. ... Read more

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This comprehensive biocritical study traces the development of Brooks's poetry over four decades, from such early works as "A Street in Bronzeville" and the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Annie Allen" to the more recent "In the Mecca", "Riot", and "To Disembark". Lightning Print On Demand Title ... Read more

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Presents a biography of the African American poet who has received the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Solid biography with lots of appeal for young adults
One of my pet peeves with many biographies written for young adults is how they tend to mythologize their subject matter. I've read this book and 2 others from Morgan Reynolds (William Grant Still and Thurgood Marshall) and I'm delighted to see that while the accomplishments of these great Americans are presented accurately, they also come off sounding like real people, not icons. For example, when Brooks visited the White House for the first time, she wore an elegant evening gown, unaware that guests would be dressed casually.Embarrassed, she left early (before the President) committing another faux pas. Mixing that story in with her vast accomplishments would have been very heartening to me as an insecure teenager!

Racial issues within the black community are also clearly addressed. Too often it's presumed that "all black people think alike" and these books clearly present some of the range and variety of opinion their subjects encountered during their lifetimes. ... Read more

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A Gifted Poet You Are . . .
Gwendolyn Brooks delivers an exceptional volume once again, and she speaks to the young(er) poets who have so much to share with the world.Brooks' vision for fledgling poets is encouraging and full of hope.This is a wonderful volume full of direction and inspiration for the poet within. ... Read more

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The poet's work is analyzed by Langston Hughes, D.H. Melhem, Maria K. Mootry, and others.

This title, Gwendolyn Brooks, part of Chelsea House Publishers’ Modern Critical Views series, examines the major works of Gwendolyn Brooks through full-length critical essays by expert literary critics. In addition, this title features a short biography on Gwendolyn Brooks, a chronology of the author’s life, and an introductory essay written by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University. ... Read more

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Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks features sparkling interviews from one of America's most valued poets.Throughout this book, which spans three decades, Brooks (1917-2000) speaks with simplicity, depth, candor, and passion about the making of a poem and about the position of the poet in humane society.

A poem, she believed, comes from the heart. In each interview, she speaks from the heart and wins over the reader.Conducted over a period of three decades, the interviews took place in various settings---in radio recording studios and in university classrooms, in the coveted spotlight of a National Endowment for the Humanities celebration, and in the intimacy of her living room.

Regardless of place or audience, Brooks speaks with humility. She was the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and to receive other coveted honors, and yet she sees herself as "an ordinary human being who is impelled to write poetry."

Brooks explains her experience within the creative process. She does not believe in a Muse. With gratitude to the Black Arts Movement, she celebrates both her blackness and the people in Bronzeville, the fictional community she created and whose lives she "put down" on paper.

Including interviews conducted by Studs Terkel, Roy Newquist, and poet Haki Madhubuti, among others, Conversations with Gwendolyn Brooks underscores the legacy of one of the nation's most brilliant and humane poets. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

A Word Of Warning ...
Just a brief word of warning, as of March 2004 Amazon's title for this includes the words Critical *EDITION* which is a bit misleading (the actual title is a Critical *COLLECTION*).Semantics perhaps, but EDITION implies that the full text of the novel is included here, which it is not.This is a collection of essays about Brooks' "Maud Martha" but IT DOES NOT INCLUDE THE ACTUAL NOVEL.Felt that should be pointed out so other buyers don't make the same mistake I did.Otherwise, this is a fine assembly of ten diverse criticisms from an eclectic and well-informed base of authors.

Deep Inside Maud Martha
Written in 1953, Maud Martha was the first and only novel to be released by the late poet Gwendolyn Brooks. Although written over 50 years ago, the story and its heroine, Maud Martha Brown, continues to have a strong impact in the literary world today. Edited by Jacqueline Bryant, a series of writers offer a critical perspective in GWENDOLYN BROOKS' MAUD MARTHA: A CRITICAL COLLECTION.

A collection of ten chapters, this book is comprised of writers from many different backgrounds offer their own perspective on Brooks' novel. With supporting evidence, each contributor presents their unique perspective exploring various topics from the story's social themes to the heroine herself. Several interesting criticisms include Larry Andrew's "The Aliveness of Things: Nature in Maud Martha," Dolores Kendrick's "Brooksian Poetic Elegance," and D.H. Melhem's "Maud Martha, Bronzeville Boys and Girls".

Although geared towards supporting the book on a college level, MAUD MARTHA: A CRITICAL COLLECTION offers varying perspectives on Brooks' tale.This collection will open your eyes to new views and allow you to see Maud Martha in a whole new light.

Reviewed by Kanika A. Wade
THE RAWSISTAZ Reviewers ... Read more

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" This is the first full-scale biography of Gwendolyn Brooks, one of America's major poets. George E. Kent, a longtime friend and literary associate of the poet in Chicago, was given exclusive access to Brooks' early notebooks, which she kept from the age of seven. Kent also interviewed Brooks, her mother, and other family members in Chicago and elsewhere. He scoured records and correspondence with her publishers, editors, and agent. He participated in the poet's literary enterprises and in her wide circle of literary and family friends. The study reveals intimate acquaintance with the Harlem Renaissance, with the Chicago literary scene and its leading figures from the thirties on, with historical developments in black culture and consciousness, and with the significant figures and activities that impressed the poet's life and art. It places Brooks' work in the context of the civil rights movement, the black arts movement, and black nationalism. Gwendolyn Brooks won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1950 for Annie Allen and is today widely recognized as one of the nation's leading poets, yet her work has received less than its due from mainstream critics. Kent's authoritative book has been one step in correcting that neglect.

Customer Reviews (1)

Don't buy this book!
IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A BIRTH TO DEATH BIOGRAPHY THIS IS NOT IT ! AMAZON LIED OR MISTAKEN THIS BOOK WAS PUBLISHED IN 1990 WHEN GWENDOLYN BROOKS WAS VERY MUCH ALIVE! GWENDOLYN BROOKS PASSED ON IN 2000! TRUTH IN ADVERTISING AMAZON! ... Read more