In his introduction to Harlem Gallery (1965), Karl Shapiro called Melvin B. Tolson "a great poet ... living in our midst ... almost totally unknown, even by the literati." Mindful that Allen Tate, in his earlier introduction to Libretto for the Republic of Liberia (1953), had praised Tolson generously for his proper concern with poetry as "the main thing"--presumably as opposed to racial issues--Shapiro emphatically declared Tolson's greatness was based on his ability to write "in Negro," thus sparking a critical controversy about the cultural implications of Tolson's complex style that distracted critics for some time from the demanding task of reading his poetry in the broader context it deserves. In more recent years a new generation of scholars and writers have examined Tolson's challenging late poetry with more diligent and more curious eyes and in the process are also discovering the full range of Tolson's achievement.

Melvin Beaunorus Tolson was...