Abstract
Collection includes the personal papers of D. H. Melhem, including literary manuscripts, interviews with poets from the Black Arts Movement, and records of her professional associations.
Administrative/Biographical History
D.H. Melhem (born Diana M. Vogel) was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926 to Lebanese immigrants. Melhem graduated with master's and doctoral degrees in English and American literature from the City University of New York. She authored eight books of poetry including works such as Arts and Politics: Politics and Art, Conversations with a Stonemason, and Poems for You. Melhem also authored at trilogy of novels called Patrimonies, edited two anthologies, composed a musical drama, and composed over 70 essays.
Melhem's Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry and the Heroic Voice was the first official comprehensive study of Brooks. Additionally, Melhem's Heroism in New Black Poetry: Introductions and Interviews criticizes and interprets the work of several other prominent black artists of the time. Melhem was a board member of the Journal of the Research Group on Socialism and Democracy, edited Home Planet News, and was the first vice president of the International Women's Writing Guild. Melhem died in 2013.
Sources
"Life," D. H. Melhem. http://dhmelhem.com/bio/.
Author: Jonathan Puckett
| Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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