Sterling A. Brown

An item at American Writers Museum

The son of a former slave, Sterling A. Brown pioneered the study of African-American literature and folklore. His anthology, The Negro Caravan (1941), was comprehensive, ranging from poetry, plays, novels, essays, and short stories by established African-American authors to folktales and lyrics of spirituals, work songs, ballads, and blues.

Brown celebrated authentic African-American voices, listening closely to the way real people talked. He felt that absorbing these voices gave his own writing "a flavor, a color, a pungency of speech." Southern Road (1932), his poetry collection, includes southern black dialect as well as the cadences of jazz and blues.

AMERICAN VOICES

An exhibit at American Writers Museum

American writing is distinctive, diverse, and comes in many forms from across the nation. The 100 authors featured here represent the evolution of American writing. Learn more about each writer on the timeline by turning the panels below their portraits. Explore centuries of writing by pulling, turning, and touching the interactive elements on the counter.

This is not meant to be a list of the greatest or most influential writers. Instead, we present authors and works as part of the American story as it grows and changes. Taken together, this rich literary heritage reflects America in all of its complexity: its energy, hope, conflict, disillusionment, and creativity.

American Writers Museum