An Anthology of Original American Writing for the 1970s 
 
Edited by Ishmael Reed. 
 
Doubelday: 1970. First edition. Hardcover in a jacket. Octavo. Jacket has a deep tear on the cover (but is still intact), an old price sticker on its back, and tanning on its folds outside and in. Bumps and impressions along the edges of the boards. A couple of small stains on the edges. The slightly browned leaves have a faint tobacco smell. 369 pages. Very good book, good jacket. Signed by Reed.
 
Whether these 1970s rebels are hyperfixated on naturalistic detail or commited to flights of interplanetary fantasy, they are individualists in revolt against the Western literary forms used to try and destory the imaginations of the enslaved. That's why Reed classifies them all as necromancers. Included in this league are Leroi Jones (aka Amiri Baraka), Al Young, John Williams, and Reed himself. 
 
"Dance and Drums preceded the word. Thousands of years before the invention of the novel or the short story, Thoth, the black Birdman of Egypt, 'invented letters' and 'gave names to things.' Magic/Religion came before 'criticism', and words (nommos) were the rappings of not one but thousands of Gods."