William Stanley Braithwaite, as editor of “The New Poetry Review” of Cambridge, author of “The Anthology of Magazine Verse”, editor of “The Contemporary American Poets Series” and annual reviewer of the poetry that appears in the leading magazines of America, is recognized as the leading Colored poet and among the foremost world poets of today. A few of his works are: “The House of Falling Leaves”, “The Book of Victorian Verse”, “Life of Lyrics and Love”, “The Book of Georgian Verse”, “The Book of Elizabethian Verse”, and “The Book of Restoration Verse.” He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1918.
James Weldon Johnson is a poet and writer of first note, and his poem “The Young Warrior,” that was set to music by Harry T. Burleigh, almost became the national hymn of Italy during the World War. His poem “Fifty Years” that appeared in many of the leading white magazines and newspapers during the first part of 1913, brought forth high comment from all parts of the country. His poems have appeared in the Century, the Independent, the Crisis and other publications. He has published some of his poetry in a book titled “Fifty Years and Other Poems.”
“Mr. Johnson is a young colored poet of America. Some of his verse is in the cultivated English, some in the broken language of the American Negro. The latter rings true. They express with singular intensity the joys and sorrows of a subject race.” The above comment was made by The London Literary World regarding the poetic abilities of Fenton Johnson, Chicago, Ill. Aside from receiving high mentions from The New York World, and Poetry, a magazine of Verse, some of his works were also included in Braithwaite’s “Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1918” and “The Chicago Anthology”. One of his recent volumes of poetry that attracted praiseworthy attention on both sides of the ocean is “A Little Dreaming.”
While the facts, that short stories of the highest order are constantly flowing from her pen point (or typewriter) and that she is Literary Editor of The Crisis, have gained for her the distinction of being a foremost prose writer among Colored women in America today; Jessie Redmon Fauset, on account of the numerous outputs and unusual high quality of her poems, is also recognized as one of the best verse writers among Colored people on both sides of the ocean.