Boyd, Herb, ed. The Harlem reader.

Random House, Three Rivers Press. 316p. c2003. 14000-4681-5. $15.00. JSA 

Unlike the well-known and widely circulated anthologies of Harlem writers and writing, this compilation does not limit itself to the work of the famous or little-known writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Instead, Boyd has chosen selections from over two centuries of writing in and about Harlem, ranging from a brief paragraph by Alexander Hamilton to excerpts from last year's Amsterdam News. Certainly, the well-known writers such as James Baldwin and Langston Hughes are represented. More interestingly, so are politicians Marcus Garvey and Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., artists Duke Ellington and Maya Angelou, and contemporary poets Willie Perdomo and Jabari Asim. Here too are a host of sociologists whose commentaries are interspersed among anecdotes and memoirs written over the years by Harlem residents. While a few short stories extend to 15 pages, most of the selections are quite brief. The items are in no particular order, the editor preferring to create a "mosaic of impressions" about Harlem. As such, The Harlem Reader is probably best read in its totality. Excellent supplementary reading for history and sociology courses. Patricia A. Moore, Brookline, MA