This Waiting for Love

"It is with great pleasure and tue sense pf mission that editor Mitchell presents the first complete collection of Johnson's work, and exhilerating interpretive volume put together with the help of Johnson's daughter, screenwriter and playwright Abigail McGrath, who generously contributed her mother's previously unpublished poems and letters as well as family photographs... Johnson wrote boldly sensual and saucy poems in both traditional and free verse, wryly intelligent and gleamingly beautiful works in praise and earhiness and freedom from racism, sexism, and Puritanism. As frank, shrewd, fresh, and sexy now as then, Johnson's powems will at last take their proper place in American poetry."—Booklist

"The poems are impressive, not only in qyality but in variety- ranging in length, from four lines to four pages; in form, from sonnet to free verse; in style, from the use of dialect to allusions to the Bible and Greek mythology; in tone, from appreciation, sensuousness, and playfulness to contempt; and, in theme, from nature to love and race."—Choice

"Johnson brought wit, skill, and a keen sense of observation to her poetry. Verner Mitchell here collects Johnson's thirty-four previously published pieces along with thirteen more, composed after she retired publicly from writing. Mitchell rounds off his volume with an introduction positioning the poet within the framework of the Harlem Renaissance, a chronology that unveils elements of a jealously guarded public life, selected letters, and an afterword by Johnson's daughter."—American Literature

"Johnson proves herself a lyricist of utmost delicacy yet steely precision; restraint attends her every meditation on love, race, and loss."—Washington Post Book World

"Mitchell has performed a great service for students of the Harlem Renaissance with this thoroughly researched collection of Johnson's poems and correspondence."—Hermine Pinson, College of William and Mary

"Johnson brought wit, skill, and a keen sense of observation to her poetry. Verner Mitchell here collects Johnson's thirty-four previously published pieces along with thirteen more, composed after she retired from public writing. Mitchell rounds off his volume with an introduction positioning the poet within the framework of the Harlem Renaissance, a chronology that unveils elements of a jealously guarded private life, selected letters, and an afterword by Johnson's daughter."—American Literature

"Johnson proves herself a lyricist of utmost delicacy yet steely precision; restraint attends her every meditation on love, race and loss."—Washington Post Book World