Made to Order at Juniper Custom, Boulder, Colorado

No collection of American literature is complete without the writers who saw their country most clearly — who named its contradictions, challenged its assumptions, and transformed the experience of Black American life into some of the most powerful, enduring, and essential writing in the English language. These are not peripheral voices in the American literary tradition. They are central to it. And this collection honors them as such.

The Collection

This carefully curated set brings together seven landmark works of 19th and 20th-century African American literature — spanning autobiography, fiction, essays, and social commentary — in premium hardcover editions from Library of America and Everyman's Library, two of the most respected publishers of serious literary editions in print.

The custom jacket design features a reproduction of The Library by Jacob Lawrence — a painting thought to depict the 135th Street Library in Harlem, now the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. It is an image of profound resonance: a celebration of Black intellectual life, literary culture, and the power of books as instruments of knowledge, dignity, and freedom. As a jacket design for this collection, it is not merely beautiful — it is exactly right.

The seven volumes included:

• Novels & Stories — Zora Neale Hurston, Library of America
• Later Works — Richard Wright, Library of America
• Song of Solomon — Toni Morrison, Everyman's Library
• Collected Autobiographies — Maya Angelou, Library of America
• Collected Essays — James Baldwin, Library of America
• Autobiographies — Frederick Douglass, Library of America
• Writings — W.E.B. Du Bois, Library of America

Each set is made entirely to order. Please allow approximately two weeks for production and shipping.

Want to Customize Further?
Our Full Custom services can expand the title list, modify the selection, or develop an entirely new jacket design around your specific vision.

All customized Juniper Custom orders are non-refundable and non-returnable.

FAQs

Why are Library of America and Everyman's Library the right publishers for this collection?
Both publishers share a commitment to producing the most authoritative, beautifully made editions of significant literature available in the English language — and that commitment makes them the natural home for writers of this magnitude. Library of America in particular was founded with an explicit mission to preserve and celebrate the full breadth of American literary heritage, and their editions of Baldwin, Angelou, Douglass, Wright, Hurston, and Du Bois are widely regarded as the definitive scholarly texts — comprehensive, carefully edited, and physically built to last. Everyman's Library's edition of Song of Solomon brings the same standard of physical quality and editorial care to Toni Morrison's masterwork. For a collection that honors writing of this importance, these are the only editions worthy of the authors they represent.

Who was Jacob Lawrence, and why is The Library a meaningful choice for this jacket design?
Jacob Lawrence was one of the most important American painters of the twentieth century — a Harlem Renaissance figure whose work depicted Black American life, history, and culture with a visual language that was simultaneously accessible, deeply serious, and immediately distinctive. The Library is among his most beloved works, depicting figures absorbed in reading and learning in a space that scholars believe to be the 135th Street Library in Harlem — a building that served as a vital intellectual and cultural center for the Harlem Renaissance and is now home to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the world's leading research institutions for the study of African and African American history and culture. As the jacket image for a collection of African American literature, Lawrence's painting is not a decorative choice — it is a statement about the relationship between Black intellectual life, literary culture, and the transformative power of books and libraries. (We recommend verifying the artwork attribution and description with a current authoritative source before publishing.)

Is this collection a great addition to educational settings?
It is an exceptional resource for any educational context where American literature, African American history, or social and cultural commentary are being explored — from high school honors programs and university literature courses to book clubs, library collections, and professional development reading groups. The authors represented in this set — Hurston, Wright, Morrison, Angelou, Baldwin, Douglass, and Du Bois — are not only canonical figures in American literature but essential voices for understanding the full complexity of American history and identity. A beautifully produced, unified set of their work makes the literature more accessible and more present in any learning environment, and communicates clearly that these writers belong at the center of the conversation — because they always have.