Arna Bontemps has brought together an extensive, representative, and brilliant collection of American Negro poetry. He has included 171 poems by fifty-five poets covering a span of seventy years. His choices reflect the spontaneity, warmth, folklore, and religious feeling of the Negro people.Many of the poems reflect poverty, suffering, and oppression, but on the whole this is a happy book filled with love of life - a tribute to the creativity of the Negro people that graphically demonstrates the important contribution they have made to our culture. TheAmerican Library Association selected this book for its list of \"Significant Adult Books for Young People.\"A copy from 1965 in generally good condition. There are some bumps and creases to the covers and the pages are tanned, but it makes a lovely reading copy.