Gwendolyn Brooks’ Maud Martha: A Critical Collection

In September 1953, legendary poet Gwendolyn Brooks introduced the reading world to Maud Martha, a complex urban black heroine, in her only published novel of the same name in her long and celebrated literary career. By the time the novel was published, indeed, Brooks had secured two Guggenheim Fellowships (1946,1947), and had already become the first black to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (Annie Allen, 1950). But the success of two other major black literary works by Ralph Ellison (Invisible Man) and Richard Wright (The Outsider) would overshadow the work initially entitled ‘American Family Brown’. Still, the work would prove to be a critical one for Brooks enthusiasts, who followed the poet’s literary career. In her introduction to this collection of literary criticism that is rooted in a deep reverence, love and respect for the honourable Ms Brooks, Jacqueline Bryant explains that, though Brooks had certainly captured national attention and had published two critically acclaimed volumes of poetry by this time (Annie Allen and A Street in Bronzeville), Maud Martha was introduced to some great acclaim in Chicago; yet national critical reception was mixed. Bryant cites as one of the goals of this collection increased attention to the too long eclipsed work.