Richard Wright, Keneth Kinnamon, and bibliography -- ep. by Howard Rambsy II

A short take  on Keneth Kinnamon's extensive bibliographies on Richard Wright.
Written by Howard Rambsy II
Read by Kassandra Timm.

Transcript

If we’re discussing the history of extraordinary responses to black novelists, then we definitely need to talk about Richard Wright. And if we’re discussing extensive bibliographies on Wright and arguably the greatest bibliographical work on a black author, then we’re obligated to talk about the efforts of Keneth Kinnamon.  

You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions — a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels and more. 

In 1988, literary scholar and bibliographer Keneth Kinnamon published A Richard Wright Bibliography: Fifty Years of Criticism and Commentary, 1933-1982. The book includes 13,117 annotated entries describing news items, interviews, book reviews, scholarly articles, books, book chapters, encyclopedia biographical sketches, dissertations, and more,  all focusing on Richard Wright. 

Kinnamon’s expansive bibliography charts five decades of popular and scholarly coverage on Wright in publications from around the world. A scholarly project of this magnitude was undoubtedly a collaborative endeavor. To complete the bibliography, Kinnamon worked with fellow Wright scholars from the U.S., from France, and from Japan among others.

The bibliography cites writings on Wright the world over: Canada, Costa Rica, Finland, Lebanon, Martinique, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, and more.  

Keep in mind that Kinnamon compiled the sources for this outstanding Wright project before the widespread availability of online scholarly databases and search engines. That’s right, he somehow produced this bibliography without Google.  

Notably, the publication of Kinnamon’s bibliography in 1988 coincided with major developments in the production of African American literary studies. The field experienced generative growth during the late 1980s through the 1990s. Kinnamon’s Wright bibliography modeled what serious commitment to the study of a major black author looked like.     

For an encore, in 2005, Kinnamon published Richard Wright: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism and Commentary, 1983-2003. The book includes 8,320 items. So taken together, Kinnamon’s two bibliographies contain more than 21,000 annotated entries. 

The reception to Wright was remarkable, but so was Kinnamon’s effort to document those responses to the author and his works.    
 
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This episode was written by Howard Rambsy. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali. 

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This podcast, Remarkable Receptions, is part of the Black Literature Network, a joint project from African American literary studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the History of Black Writing at the University of Kansas. The project was made possible by the generous support of the Mellon Foundation.  For more information, visit blacklitnetwork.org.