Paule Marshall, a pioneering African American writer, died on August 12 at age 90. She was raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., by poor immigrants from Barbados. Marshall fell in love with language at an early age, and when she was 12 or 13 she changed her name from Paulie to Paule with a silent e in honor of writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). By 1955, Marshall had a masters in English from Hunter College and was working for Our World, a magazine for African American readers. Marshall's debut novel was Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959). In 1961, Marshall received a Guggenheim Fellowship and published Soul Clap Hands and Sing, a collection of four novellas. Her other work includes the novels The Chosen Place, The Timeless People (1969), Praisesong for the Widow (1983), Daughters (1991), The Fisher King (2000) and the memoir Triangular Road (2009).
In the 2014 Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Cheryl Wall called Brown Girl, Brownstones "the novel that most black feminist critics consider to be the beginning of contemporary African American women's writings." It follows Selina Boyce, the 10-year-old daughter of Barbadian immigrants, whose Brooklyn adolescence is marked by poverty and racism. Brown Girl, Brownstones gained further acclaim when it was reissued by the Feminist Press in 1981. It was last published by Dover in 2009 ($12.95, 9780486468327). --Tobias Mutter
