University of Illinois Press

Nothing

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Author:

Frank Marshall Davis

Editor/Other:

Edited by John Edgar Tidwell

Pub Date:

2007

Pages:

352 pages

Dimensions:

6 x 9.25 in.

Illustrations:

6 black & white photographs

Poetry African American Studies Chicago Midwest Regional See all Subjects

Black Moods

Collected Poems

Recovering politically potent poems from the long-lost father of modern black poetry

Black Moods collects for the first time all of Frank Marshall Davis's extant published poems as well as his previously unpublished work. From sharp-edged sketches of Southside Chicago's urban landscape to the prismatic world that lay beneath Hawaii's placid surface, Davis's muscular poems blend social, cultural, and political concerns--always shaped by his promise to "try to be as direct as good blues."

John Edgar Tidwell's introduction examines both Davis's poetry and his politics, presenting a subtle portrait of a complex writer devoted to exposing discriminatory practices and reaffirming the humanity of the common people.

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"What makes reading Davis' poetry worthwhile is his vivid use of imagery, which operates as the engine behind his writing. . . . Tidwell rightfully proclaims that Frank Marshall Davis is a powerful voice that should not be forgotten."--Michael V. Williams, Black Issues Book Review

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Frank Marshall Davis (1905–87) was an editor, reporter, columnist, and critic. His poetry collections include Black Man’s Verse (1935), I Am the American Negro (1937), and 47th Street: Poems (1948). John Edgar Tidwell is an associate professor of English at the University of Kansas.

University of Illinois