Sunday, January 17, 2021

Core Collection: Alternative Classics

These works of fiction and nonfiction from African American authors, the civil rights era, and beyond, are part of Vineyard Haven Library's "Alternative Classics" core collection. Inspired by the Alternate Classics Core Collection developed by a team of staff at Denver Public Library, we've identified books in our library's collection to recommend to readers looking to explore wider perspectives.

The 175 fiction and nonfiction titles in this collection are "great works from around the world that may not traditionally be thought of as classics... they are diverse and capture many different voices; they are enduring and important works of literature and narrative non-fiction that speak to the human condition, and are exemplary representations of a particular community, idea, or experience."

To view all titles in the collection with links to our catalog to place a request, visit https://www.vhlibrary.org/alternative.shtml
 

Autobiography of Malcolm XAutobiography of Malcolm X 
By Malcolm X
1992-09 - Ballantine Books
9780345379757 Check Our Catalog

With its first great victory in the landmark Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954, the Civil Rights movement gained the powerful momentum it needed to sweep forward into its crucial decade, the 1960s. As voices of protest and change rose above the din of history and false promises, one sounded more urgently, more passionately than the rest. Malcolm X - once called the most …More

Between the World and MeBetween the World and Me 
By Coates, Ta-Nehisi
2015-07 - One World
9780812993547 Check Our Catalog

Awards:
ALA Notable Books (2016), Alex Awards (2016), Books for a Better Life (2016), Kirkus Prize (2015), Literary Award (2016), National Book Awards (2015)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER - NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE - PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST - NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST - ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" - SOON TO BE AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT

The Black BookThe Black Book 
By Harris, Middleton A.
Editor Smith, Ernest
Editor Levitt, Morris
2019-12 - Random House (NY)
9781400068487 Check Our Catalog

"The Black Book" remains a breathtaking testament to the legendary wisdom, strength, and perseverance of black men and women intent on freedom. . …More

The Fire Next TimeThe Fire Next Time 
By Baldwin, James A.
1992-12 - Vintage
9780679744726 Check Our Catalog

A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on …More

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about RaceThe Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race 
By Ward, Jesmyn
2016-08 - Scribner Book Company
9781501126345 Check Our Catalog

The New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race--collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation--are "thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify" (USA TODAY). …More

Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and TimesFrederick Douglass: Autobiographies: Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times 
By Douglass, Frederick
Editor Gates, Henry Louis
1994-02 - Library of America
9780940450790 Check Our Catalog

Born a slave, Frederick Douglass educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history. His three autobiographical narratives, collected here in one volume, are now recognized as classics of both American history and American literature. Writing with the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made him a brilliantly effective spokesman for abolition and equal …More

Invisible ManInvisible Man 
By Ellison, Ralph Waldo
1992-09 - Modern Library
0679600159 Check Our Catalog

Ellison won the National Book Award for this searing record of a black man's journey through contemporary America. "Unquestionably, Ellison's book is a work of extraordinary intensity--powerfully imagined and written with a savage, wryly humorous gusto".--Atlantic. …More

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and RedemptionJust Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption 
By Stevenson, Bryan
2014-10 - Spiegel & Grau
9780812994520 Check Our Catalog

Awards:
ALA Notable Books (2015), Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence (2015), Books for a Better Life (2015), Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2015), In the Margins Book Award (2015), Indies Choice Book Awards (2015), Kirkus Prize (2014), L.A. Times Book Prize (2014), New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association Award (2015)

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MICHAEL B. JORDAN AND JAMIE FOXX - A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice--from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time.

" Bryan Stevenson's] dedication to fighting for justice and equality has inspired me …More

March: Book OneMarch: Book One 
By Lewis, John
Author Aydin, Andrew
Illustrator Powell, Nate
2013-08 - Top Shelf Productions
9781603093002 Check Our Catalog

Awards:
Coretta Scott King Award (2014), Cybils (2013), Georgia Children's Book Award (2015), Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers (2015), Sequoyah Book Awards (2016), Virginia Readers Choice Award (2016), Volunteer State Book Awards (2016)

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Congressman John Lewis (GA-5) is an American icon and key figure of the civil rights movement. His commitment to justice and nonviolence has taken him from an Alabama sharecropper's farm to the halls of Congress, from a segregated schoolroom to the 1963 March on Washington, and from receiving beatings from state troopers to receiving the Medal of …More

Men We ReapedMen We Reaped 
By Ward, Jesmyn
2013-09 - Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
9781608195213 Check Our Catalog

Awards:
Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2014), Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award (2014), Indies Choice Book Awards (2014), National Book Critics Circle Award (2013)

A memoir that examines rural poverty and the lingering strains of racism in the south by the prize-winning author of "Salvage the Bones." …More

Quicksand and PassingQuicksand and Passing 
By Larsen, Nella
2010-03 - Wilder Publications
9781604599923 Check Our Catalog

"Quicksand and Passing are novels I will never forget. They open up a whole world of experience and struggle that seemed to me, when I first read them years ago, absolutely absorbing, fascinating, and indispensable."--Alice Walker

"Discovering Nella Larsen is like finding lost money with no name on it. One can enjoy it with delight and share it without guilt." --Maya …More

A Raisin in the SunA Raisin in the Sun 
By Hansberry, Lorraine
Introduction by Nemiroff, Robert
1995-08 - Modern Library
9780679601722 Check Our Catalog

"Never before, the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people's lives been seen on the stage," observed James Baldwin shortly before "A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959. 

Indeed Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling, working-class family living on the South Side of Chicago connected …More

Roots: The Saga of an American FamilyRoots: The Saga of an American Family 
By Haley, Alex
2000-09 - Wings
0517208601 Check Our Catalog

One of the most beloved bestsellers of all time that touched the hearts of readers across the globe, "Roots" is now available in the Modern Classic Edition marking the 25th anniversary of its first printing. …More

The Selected Works of Ida B. Wells-BarnettThe Selected Works of Ida B. Wells-Barnett 
By Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
Introduction by Harris, Trudier
1991-04 - Oxford University Press, USA
0195062027 Check Our Catalog

Four of Ida B. Wells-Barnett's moving anti-lynching essays are presented in this volume. Written during the height of the lynching craze at the turn of the century, they elegantly speak to the pain and loss caused by racist thought and action. …More

The Souls of Black FolkThe Souls of Black Folk 
By Du Bois, W. E. B.
Introduction by Rampersad, Arnold
1993-10 - Everyman's Library
067942802X Check Our Catalog

First published in 1903, this eloquent collection of essays exposed the magnitude of racism in our society. The book endures today as a classic document of American social and political history: a manifesto that has influenced generations with its transcendent vision for change. …More

The StreetThe Street 
By Petry, Ann
Introduction by Jones, Tayari
2020-01 - Mariner Books
9780358187547 Check Our Catalog

As much a historical document as it is a novel, this 1946 winner of the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship is the poignant and unblinkingly honest story of a young black woman's struggle to live and raise her son by herself amid the violence, poverty, and racial dissonance of Harlem in the late 1940s. …More

Their Eyes Were Watching GodTheir Eyes Were Watching God 
By Hurston, Zora Neale
Illustrator Pinkney, Jerry
Introduction by Williams, Sherley Anne
1991-10 - University of Illinois Press
0252017781 Check Our Catalog

Initially published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman has, since its reissue in trade paper in 1978, been the most widely readand highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature. With this richly illustrated new edition, the novel is finally accorded the treatment it deserves as a classic. …More

The Underground RailroadThe Underground Railroad 
By Whitehead, Colson
2016-08 - Doubleday Books
9780385542364 Check Our Catalog

Awards:
National Book Awards (2016)

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, the #1 New York Times bestseller from Colson Whitehead, a magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South

Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among …More

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