John Edgar Tidwell Research Interests

My teaching often intersects with my research, thus enabling one to shape and inform the other. It is in this spirit that I consider American literature important to contextualizing African American literature. Neither can be studied in isolation. Both provide a fuller discussion of the other. More specifically, I've conducted research into both Sterling A. Brown and Frank Marshall Davis. On Brown, I've published widely, but all of what I've done is preparation for a biography I'm currently writing. The work I've done on Davis has led to two book-length editing projects: Livin' the Blues: Memoirs of a Black Journalist and Poet (1992), Black Moods: Collected Poems (2002), and Writings of Frank Marshall Davis, A Voice of the Black Press (2007).