Owen Dodson
Graduate of Yale School of Drama, 1939
Biography
Owen Vincent Dodson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 28, 1914. He attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, receiving a bachelor's in 1936, and Yale School of Drama, graduating with an MFA in playwriting in 1939 with his play Divine Comedy. Following graduation he enlisted in the Navy, writing plays and poems about the Black naval experience. The 1940s also brought Dodson several critical successes, with the performance of his play New World A-Coming (1944) and the publication of his poetry collection Powerful Long Ladder (1946). Other publications of note from throughout his career include several novels, including Boy at the Window (1951) and Come Home Early, Child (1977); plays, including Garden of Time and Bayou Legend; and short stories, including “The Summer Five,” which won an award from the Paris Review.
Dodson taught at Howard University from 1947-69, and while there taught such notable students as Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis, Earle Hyman, and Charles Brown. He also brought several well-known actors to the university as guests, including Vivien Leigh and Sidney Poitier. He briefly taught at several other colleges and universities, including Spelman College and Atlanta University in Georgia and Hampton Institute in Virginia. Dodson was also the recipient of the Rosenwald and Guggenheim Fellowships. Dodson died on June 21, 1983, in New York City.
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Publications
The Shining Town. Self-published, 1937.
Divine Comedy. Self-published, 1938.
Amistad. Self-published, 1939.
"Troy Is A Lost City," Phylon 1, no. 2 (1940).
The Southern Star. Self-published, 1940.
I Stand Alone. Phylon 2, no. 3 (1941).
The Midwest Mobilizes: The Negro and the War. Chicago, IL: WBBM, 1942.
Epithalamion for Evelyn Boldes Young and Joseph Henry Jenkins, Jr. Boston, MA: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1942.
The Ballad of Dorie Miller. Self-published, 1942.
Freedom the Banner. Self-published, 1942.
Lord Nelson, Naval Hero. Self-published, 1942.
"Review of Shakespeare in Harlem," Phylon 3, no. 3 (1942).
Black Mother Praying. Self-published, 1943.
Everybody Join Hand. Self-published, 1943.
"Samuel Chapman Armstrong," Phylon 4, no. 3 (1943).
New world a-coming; an original pageant of hope. Self-published, 1944.
Garden of Time. Self-published, 1945.
Bayou Legend. Self-published, 1946.
Laughter underneath the rock. Self-published, 1946.
Powerful Long Ladder. New York, NY: Farrar, Sraus & Company, Inc., 1946.
The Third Fourth of July. Self-published, 1946.
"Countee Cullen (1903-1946)," Phylon 7, no. 1 (1946).
"For Edwin R. Embree," Phylon 7, no. 4 (1946).
"Carousels and Rain," Poetry 71, no. 5 (1948).
Over the mangy cities. Washington, DC: Howard University, 1950.
Boy at the Window. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1951.
When Trees Were Green. New York, NY: Popular Library, 1951.
Christmas, 1952. Washington, DC: Howard University, 1952.
"The Summer Fire," The Paris Review, no. 12 (1956).
The Confession Stone: Song Cycles. Washington, DC: Paul Breman, 1960.
'Til Victory is Won. Self-published, 1967.
Come Home Early, Child. New York, NY: Popular Library, 1977.
"Who Has Seen the Wind?: Playwrights and the Black Experience," Black American Literature Forum 11, no. 3 (1977).
The Harlem Book of the Dead. Dobbs Ferry, NY: Morgan & Morgan, 1978.
"Review of Africa Where I Baked My Bread," CLA Journal 22, no. 1 (1978).
"Who Has Seen the Wind?: Part Two," Black American Literature Forum 13, no. 1 (1979).
"Who has Seen the Wind?: Part III," Black American Literature Forum 14, no. 2 (1980).
"Review of Black Theatre: Present Condition", Black American Literature Forum 17, no. 2 (1983).