Full Name
Gwendolyn Brooks
Date of Birth
June 7, 1917
Place of Birth
Date of Death
December 3, 2000 (cause of death: cancer)
Place of Death
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Education
Wilson Junior College, (no degree specified)
Spouses Names
Children Names
Henry Lowington Blakely III, Nora Brooks Blakely
Parents Names
Keziah Wims Brooks, David Anderson Brooks
Known Affiliates Names
N/A
Affiliated Organizations’ Names
American Academy of Arts and Letters, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Personal Life
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was born on June 7, 1917, in Topeka, Kansas, to David Anderson Brooks and Keziah Corinne Wims. Her father was the son of a runaway slave, and her mother was a schoolteacher and classically trained pianist. The family moved to Chicago when Brooks was just six weeks old, and it was there that she was raised and began her journey as a poet. From a young age, her parents recognized and nurtured her talent for writing. Her mother encouraged her to become “the lady Paul Laurence Dunbar,” and her father recited poetry to her, including works from Dunbar and the Harvard Classics[9][13][15].
Brooks published her first poem, “Eventide,” at the age of thirteen in American Childhood magazine. She attended three high schools: the prestigious, integrated Hyde Park High School; the all-Black Wendell Phillips Academy High School; and the integrated Englewood High School. The racial prejudice she encountered at these institutions would shape her understanding of social dynamics in the United States[11].
In 1936, Brooks graduated from Wilson Junior College. She married Henry Lowington Blakely Jr. in 1939, and the couple had two children, Henry and Nora. The family resided in Chicago’s South Side, where Brooks remained until her death on December 3, 2000[11][13].
Career
Gwendolyn Brooks began her professional writing career early, publishing poems in the Chicago Defender’s “Lights and Shadows” poetry column at sixteen. She graduated from Woodrow Wilson Junior College in 1936 and continued to write and publish her work. Her first collection of poems, “A Street in Bronzeville,” was published in 1945 and received critical acclaim. This was followed by “Annie Allen” in 1949, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize, making her the first African American to receive this award[6][9][11].
Brooks was a dedicated teacher and mentor, conducting poetry workshops and teaching at various institutions, including Columbia College and Chicago State University. She was appointed Poet Laureate for the state of Illinois and later became the first Black woman appointed as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress[4][6][11].
Achievements
Gwendolyn Brooks’s achievements are numerous. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1950 for “Annie Allen,” making her the first African American recipient. She was named Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and served in this role until her death. Brooks was also a National Women’s Hall of Fame inductee and received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts. She was awarded over seventy honorary degrees and various other honors, including a National Medal of the Arts, the Frost Medal, and a National Book Foundation Award for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters[4][7][11].
Controversies, Myths, Misconceptions
While Gwendolyn Brooks’s work was not without its critics, particularly during the rise of the Black Arts Movement when some younger poets challenged her use of traditional forms, she adapted her style to reflect the changing times. Her work was also subject to censorship; one of her most famous poems, “We Real Cool,” was banned in schools in Mississippi and West Virginia in the 1970s for perceived sexual connotations[18].
Bibliography
Gwendolyn Brooks authored more than twenty books of poetry, including “Children Coming Home,” “Blacks,” “To Disembark,” “The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems,” “Riot,” “In the Mecca,” “The Bean Eaters,” “Annie Allen,” and “A Street in Bronzeville.” She also wrote a novel, “Maud Martha,” and an autobiography, “Report from Part One”[2][6].
Citations
Citations: