Peyton, Fountain. A Glance at the Life of Ira Frederick
Aldridge. Washington, D.C.: R. K. Pendleton,
1917.
Aldridge Players
A small African-American theater group in NEW
YORK CITY whose name paid tribute to Ira
Aldridge, the great 19th-century tragedian who
was “the most famous of Negro actors” and “had
few equals in the part of Othello, the Moor”
(Negro Year Book, 1925–1926: 354). The Aldridge
Players presented three superior productions dur-
ing the summer of 1926. THEOPHILUSLEWIS, the
highly respected MESSENGER theater critic,
praised the company for their versions of three
FRANKWILSONplays, SUGARCAIN, Color Wor-
ship,and Flies.
Bibliography
Lewis, Theophilus. “Theatre.” The Messenger(August
1926).
Marshall, Herbert. Ira Aldridge, the Negro Tragedian.Car-
bondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1968.
Alexander, Lewis (1900–1945)
An actor, poet, and editor born in WASHINGTON,
D.C., on 4 July 1900. Alexander, a student at
both HOWARDUNIVERSITYand the UNIVERSITY
OFPENNSYLVANIA, immersed himself in African
American theater in New York. He collaborated
with several groups, including the ALDRIDGE
PLAYERS,HOWARD UNIVERSITY PLAYERS, and
ETHIOPIANARTPLAYERS. His poems, inspired by
Japanese haiku and traditional poetical forms,
were not especially race-conscious. They ap-
peared in FIRE!!, OPPORTUNITY, the SATURDAY
EVENINGQUILL, and in CAROLINGDUSK, the
1927 collection of poems by African-American
writers edited by COUNTEE CULLEN. In 1927
Alexander was the editor of the Carolina Maga-
zineissue that was devoted to works by African-
American writers.
Bibliography
Hughes, Langston, and Arna Bontemps, eds. The Poetry
of the Negro, 1756–1970.1949, reprint, Garden
City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1970.
Alexander, Raymond Pace(1898–1975)
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Alexander
earned a bachelor of science degree from the UNI-
VERSITY OFPENNSYLVANIAin 1920 and an LL.B.
degree from HARVARDLaw School in 1923. Dur-
ing his legal career, which included a presidency of
the National Negro Bar Association and a lengthy
tenure on the Philadelphia Court of Common
Pleas, he published essays on African Americans
and the law. In February 1923 he published in OP-
PORTUNITYa forthright indictment of Harvard’s
racist residential policy that barred African-Ameri-
can students from the campus dormitories. His
September 1931 essay on “The Negro Lawyer” was
a spirited call to African-American lawyers, whom
he regarded as essential defenders of black social,
civil, and legal rights.Bibliography
Alexander, Raymond Pace. “Voices from Harvard’s Own
Negroes.” Opportunity(February 1923).
———. “The Negro Lawyer.” Opportunity(September
1931).Alexander Pushkin Poetry Prize
A literary award named in honor of Alexander
Pushkin (1799–1837), the celebrated Russian poet,
and one of the many poetry prizes offered by OP-
PORTUNITYmagazine, the official publication of the
Urban League. Winning entries included “Golgotha
Is a Mountain” by ARNABONTEMPSin 1926.Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
The highly respected publishing house established
in 1915, founded by ALFREDABRAHAMKNOPF,a
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITYgraduate, native of NEW
YORKCITY, and cofounder of the journal AMERI-
CANMERCURY.
Knopf gained a reputation for excellence and
contributed much to literary history and scholar-
ship through its attention to emerging and estab-
lished authors in and beyond America. The
publishers gained much respect for their promotion
of European writers such as Albert Camus, Franz
Kafka, André Gide, and Thomas Mann. The press
also prided itself on its list of important American
authors who included Willa Cather, Ezra Pound,Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. 5