Hello,
I'm trying to expand my library by reading classics and I'm trying to incorporate books that would be considered as classics by black authors. So far I only really know about Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Bell Hooks, and Toni Morrison off the top of my head, so I would like more recommendations please and thank you.
by Background-Arm6188
17 Comments
Zora Neale Hurston qualifies as an author
Alice Walker- The Color Purple.
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth is 25 years old, so might be considered a classic.
Zora Neale Hurston
The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Native Son and Black Boy by Richard Wright
Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates – Not a proper “classic”yet, though sure to become one.
Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
The complete works of Nnedi Okorafor
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audrey Lorde certainly counts as a classic
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Richard Wright, Native Son & Black Boy
Ernest J. Gaines, A Gathering of Old Men
Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson
*Native Son* and *Black Boy* by Richard Wright
Langston Hughes if you want to do poetry
Roots
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Schomburg Center recently published a really good list of classics for the 100th anniversary of Black History Month; you can find it by googling “100 Black Voices: Schomburg Centennial Reading List”.
One I would recommend that isn’t on that list is *Roots* by Alex Haley.
Octavia Butler’s Earthseed Duology (Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents)
Elizabeth Nunez.
All of her books are good, but for me
Prospero’s Daughter is my favorite.
Octavia Butler, a master of science fiction story-telling. I like her short stories but she has really robust trilogies and one-offs too.
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe