African-American literature

Barksdale is also the author of Langston Hughes:
The Poet and His Critics (1977) and his swan-song
collection of selected essays, Praisesong of Survival:
Lectures and Essays, 1957–1989 (University of Il-
linois Press, 1992), in which his defining, signature
essay, “Critical Theory and Problems of Canonic-
ity in African American Literature” presents his
insightful message; “African American literature
cannot effectively survive critical approaches that
stress authorial depersonalization and the essential
unimportance of racial history, racial community,
and racial traditions.”
Barksdale was one of the founding presidents of
the COLLEGE LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (1973–1975),
a major organization for blacks who taught En-
glish, as the doors of the segregated Modern Lan-
guage Association were still closed to them at that
time. He was also one of the founding presidents
of the Langston Hughes Society (1981–1983),
which granted him the Langston Hughes Prize
in 1986. In 1989, he received three major awards:
the Therman B. O’Daniel Distinguished Educa-
tor Award presented by the Middle Atlantic Writ-
ers Association, the National Council of Teachers
of English Black Caucus Distinguished Educator
Award, and the Olaudah Equiano Distinguished
Award for Pioneering Achievements in African
American Literature and Culture. He was a distin-
guished member of the advisory committee for the
Mellon Humanities Program for Black Colleges
from 1975 to 1979, the Graduate Record Exami-
nation Administrative Board from 1976 to 1978,
and the University of Illinois Press Board from
1982 to 1986. He was also a consultant for the Ford
Foundation from 1968 to 1970; the Commission
on Higher Education, North Central Association
from 1973 to 1986; and the National Endowment
for the Humanities in 1983.
Barksdale was married to Mildred Barksdale
(1922–2000), the first black to receive the rank of
professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta,
who joined him at the University of Illinois at Ur-
bana-Champaign as assistant dean of the College
of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He was the father of
four children—Maxine, Richard Jr. (deceased),
Calvin, and James—and seven grandchildren—
Nikomis, James Jr., Adam, Andrew, Kirby, Nathan,

and Samuel. Although trained as a British Victo-

rian scholar, Barksdale was, during the 20th cen-

tury, one of the major literary and critical voices

of the African-American literary tradition, partic-

ularly as a black literary historian and Black Aes-

thetic theorist and critic, having written in the area

for nearly four decades. His literary legacy lives on,

as it continues to expand and influence indelibly

the broader literary world and the Africana literary

tradition in particular.

Clenora Hudson-Weems

Barlow, George (1948– )

Although born in Berkeley, poet George Barlow

grew up in Richmond, California. After receiving

his B.A. in English from California State Univer-

sity, Hayward (1970), he completed an M.F.A.

degree in English from the University of Iowa

(1972), where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow

and a Ford Foundation Fellow. Returning to the

University of Iowa after teaching courses in cre-

ative writing and African-American literature at

DeAnza College and Contra Costa College for

more than a decade, Barlow received an M.A. de-

gree in American studies in 1992.

Barlow has published two collections of poems,

Gabriel (1974), a Broadside Press publication, and

Gumbo (1981), which was published by Doubleday

as a 1981 National Poetry Series selection (selected

by ISHMAEL REED). He coedited, with Grady Hill-

man and Maude Meehan, About Time III: An An-

thology of California Prison Writing (William James

Associates, 1987). His poetry is included in such

major anthologies as Trouble the Water (1997),

edited by Jerry Ward; In Search of Our Color Ev-

erywhere (1994), edited by E. ETHELBERT MILLER;

and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth Century Afri-

can American Poetry (1996), edited by CLARENCE

MAJOR. His work has also been published in such

leading journals as The American Poetry Review,

Obsidian, CALLALOO, and The Iowa Review.

Although he cannot be placed fully within the

camp of the BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT and its major

architects, thematically Barlow’s poetry resounds

with many of the central tenets of this movement,

36 Barlow, George