April is National Poetry Month, so for this week's Throwback Thursday post, I knew I wanted to focus on poetry. On previous trips to the Archive, we found a few horror story anthologies, so Deimosa and I decided to look for poetry anthologies. We found a bunch!
With these anthologies, Scholastic (or one of our imprints) published the actual book, however, the poems inside are from different publishers and we had to recieve reprint permission to include them.
Family (A Scholatic Literature Unit Anthology), from 1961, edited by Murray Rockowitz, Principal, The John Philip Sousa Junior High School in New York City. (Other Scholatic Literature Units included High Adventure, Personal Code, Small World, and Mirrors.)
From the back cover: In this collection of stories, essays, and poems, you will find answers to questions you yourself have asked:
- How can I bring up my parents?
- How can I deal with a family crisis?
- How can I learn to "belong"?
Some of the answers will amuse you; some will surprise you; all will give you something to think about.
Arrow Book of Poetry, from 1965, selected by Ann McGovern (author of Stone Soup and other classics!), illustrated by Grisha Dotzenko.
My Name is Black: An Anthology of Black Poets, from 1973, edited by Amanda Ambrose, photographs by Chester Higgins, Jr. The book is broken down into three sections: African Poems, Slave Poems, and American Poems.
From the back cover: Poems about –
- hope and despair
- love and loneliness
- laughter and tears
- growing up and growing old
Black poets write about Africa, slavery and modern life with feeling, insight and humor.
Alone Amid All This Noise: A Collection of Women's Poetry, from 1976, edited by Ann Reit.
From the inside flap: This unique anthology inclides 119 poems written by women at different times and in different places – from the time of Sappho in ancient Greece up to the 1970s.
Beach Glass and other poems, from 1970, edited by Paul Molloy.
From the inside flap: Each poem in this collection focuses upon feelings and responses we all have shared–a moment of childhood anguish... the mingled pain and joy of love... a sudden flash of insight. And most are written in the familar idiom of rhythms of American speech, unencumbered by obscurity of either language or allusion.
Special thanks to Librarian Deimosa Webber-Bey for her ongoing help with this series!
Gina Asprocolas
