Publishers See Gold in Black Culture Books

One of the more spirited recent book auctions did not involve a hot first novel with film possibilities or a dishy autobiography by a Hollywood star.

Ten publishers dueled months ago for the chance to publish “Body and Soul,” a health and survival guide for African American women proposed by Linda Villarosa, Essence magazine’s senior editor for health coverage. The prize went to Harcourt Brace, which agreed to pay the author an advance in the mid-six figures. Publication is scheduled for the summer.

The episode offers the most dramatic evidence of an otherwise quiet trend toward publishing more and more reference books, histories and anthologies aimed at African American readers--filling a longstanding gap in the process.

The current crop includes “The African Americans,” a Viking Studio coffee table book ($45), edited by David Cohen and Charles Collins, which examines the African American experience; “A History of African-American Artists: From 1792 to the Present,” a $65 Pantheon title by Harry Henderson and the artist Romare Bearden (who died in 1988); “Crossing the Danger Water: Three Hundred Years of African-American Writing,” a 752-page anthology from Anchor Books, and “Daily Motivations for African-American Success,” a Fawcett Columbine title by Dennis Kimbro that features 365 inspirational essays, each introduced by quotations from Malcolm X and other notables.

“There’s a big, big market,” said literary agent Barbara Lowenstein, who represented Villarosa. “I really think it started with Anita Hill and the Clarence Thomas hearings, when white Americans woke up to the fact that there are very intelligent middle- and upper-middle-class blacks. We were missing the boat here.”

Erroll McDonald, the executive editor of Pantheon Books, offers another view.

“For a long time in the 1980s, certain cultures did not have an outlet in publishing,” he said. “One explanation for the current boom may be that it represents a response to the debate on multiculturalism being conducted in this country.”

Perhaps the most ambitious offering is the “African Americans: Voices of Triumph” series from Time-Life Books. “Perseverance,” the first of three planned volumes aimed at a non-academic audience, is a generously illustrated history that presents discrete sections on such subjects as the slave trade, John Brown’s struggle at Harpers Ferry and the achievements of the late jurist Thurgood Marshall.

Time-Life has printed a hefty 150,000 copies of “Perseverance.” A volume scheduled for February, “Leadership,” will focus on African American successes in business and the professions; the third book will highlight excellence in the arts.

In March, Anchor Books plans to publish “African Rhapsody: A Collection of Contemporary African Short Stories.” William Morrow is shooting for a 100,000-copy printing next summer for George C. Fraser’s “Success Runs in Our Race: The Complete Guide to Effective Networking in the African-American Community.”

These books may be less likely to end up on bestseller lists than more commercial titles. But like all good reference works, they offer the kind of depth and value that keeps them on store shelves months longer.

Last year, for example, Pantheon published “Daughters of Africa,” a 1,000-page anthology of writings by women of African descent that included traditional African poems, reflections of the abolitionist Sojourner Truth and excerpts from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.” Despite a paucity of reviews and a $35 list price, the book, edited by Margaret Busby, so far has sold copies totaling in “the solid five figures,” McDonald said.

Another steady seller is “My Soul Looks Back, ‘Less I Forget,” a Bartlett’s-like collection of quotations by people of color. Dorothy Winbush Riley, a Detroit educator, started gathering the statements from books and magazines after her middle-school students had a hard time locating suitable quotes for an African American History Month project. Self-published by Riley in 1991, the book came to the attention of HarperCollins, which in June published an expanded edition with 7,000 quotations.

Nancy Peske, the HarperCollins editor who reached out to Riley, recalled that when she first proposed the book to HarperCollins’ editorial board, “People said, ‘You mean it hasn’t been done before?’ Clearly, it struck us as a book that someone should have done. It was so obvious.”

As Peske explained: “We think of it as a book that will be around for a long, long, long time.”