"Never before, in 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.
This edition presents the fully restored, uncut version of Hansberry's landmark work with an introduction by Robert Nemiroff.
Lorraine Hansberry's award-winning drama about the hopes and aspirations of a struggling,...

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

This title examines the genre of drama in She Stoops to Conquer, Pygmalion, Inherit the Wind, A Raisin in the Sun, and Mamma Mia! It features four analysis papers that consider drama, each using different critical lenses, writing techniques, or aspects of the genre. Critical thinking questions, sidebars highlighting and explaining each thesis and argument, and other possible approaches for analysis help students understand the mechanics of essay writing....

During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, African Americans came to be recognized as equal citizens in the United States. In more recent years, African Americans have made important contributions to society in many fields, including politics, science, and film. Find out more in Contemporary Achievements, a title in the Black History series.

The Common Core State Standards initiated major changes for language arts teachers, particularly the emphasis on "informational text." Language arts teachers were asked to shift attention toward informational texts without taking away from the teaching of literature. Teachers, however, need to incorporate nonfiction in ways that enhance rather than take away from their teaching of literature. The Using Informational Text series is designed to help. In...

The first known Chicago Tribune theater review appeared on March 25, 1853. An anonymous notice, it shared the page with two other announcements-one about a pair of thousand-pound hogs set to be slaughtered and another trumpeting the largest load of lumber ever to leave Chicago. "And thus Chicago's priorities were starkly laid out right there on that page," begins Chris Jones in the introduction to this eyewitness cultural history. "Hog butcher for...

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; understandable essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

Shakespeare wrote with a feather quill and ink, Emily Dickinson wrote with a fountain pen, Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote on a Yiddish typewriter. But what did such writers do when they weren't writing? What did Jane Austen eat for breakfast? What could make Mark Twain throw his shirts out the window? Why would Zora Neale Hurston punch a fellow elevator passenger? Lives of the Writers tells all that and more.