Gwendolyn Brooks Correspondence (Series 1), 1938, 1943-2002 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was an American poet and educator born in Topeka, Kansas and raised on the South Side of Chicago. In 1950, Brooks was the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category, receiving the award in Poetry for Annie Allen (1949). At the core of this book is "The Anniad," an epic poem that details the life of a young woman in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. Brooks was a beloved mentor to many poets and artists from the Black Arts movement, and started the Illinois Poet Laureate Awards to encourage poetry writing amongst young people. During her life, Brooks received numerous accolades for her work, including her appointment as Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (now the Poet Laureate of the United States) in 1985.

This temporary record only contains collection content for the first series of the Gwendolyn Brooks Collection (MSS00086). Series 1 was separated from the rest of the collection and subseries 1 and 5 were sectioned into smaller groupings in an attempt to improve load times. Click "Arrangement" for the intellectual arrangement of Series 1. For additional series, click here.