Contents xi
COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-1946) 696
Yet Do I Marvel 697
Incident 697
RICHARD WRIGHT (1908-1960) 699
Long Black Song 700
MURIEL RUKEYSER (1913-1980) 723
Effort at Speech Between Two People 724
Suicide Blues 725
Poem 726
PART III AMERICAN PROSE SINCE 1945 727
Letter to the Reader: American Literature Since 1945, Cold War to
Contemporary 729
EUDORA WELTY (1909-2001) 762
A Worn Path 763
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911- 1983) 771
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof 773
JOHN CHEEVER (1912-1982) 859
The Enormous Radio 860
BERNARD MALAMUD (1914-1986) 870
The Mourners 870
RALPH ELLISON (1914-1994) 877
Battle Royal 878
GRACE PALEY (B. 1922) 891
A Conversation with My Father 892
JAMES BALDWIN (1924-1987) 897
Notes of a Native Son 897
FLANNERY O'CONNOR (1925-1964) 917
Revelation 917
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. (1929-1968) 936
I Have a Dream 937
TONI MORRISON (B. 1931) 94l
Recitatif 942
JOHN UPDIKE (B. 1932) 960
Separating 960