Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was born on September 16, 1950, in Keyser, West Virginia. He received a degree in history from Yale University in 1973 and a Ph.D. from Clare College, which is part of the University of Cambridge in 1979. He is a leading scholar of African-American literature, history, and culture. He began working on the Black Periodical Literature Project, which uncovered lost literary works published in 1800s. He rediscovered what is believed to be the first novel published by an African-American in the United States. He republished the 1859 work by Harriet E. Wilson, entitled Our Nig, in 1983. He has written numerous books including Colored People: A Memoir, A Chronology of… African-American History, The Future of the Race, Black Literature and Literary Theory, and The Signifying Monkey: Towards a Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism. In 1991, he became the head of the African-American studies department at Harvard University. He is now the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at the university. He wrote and produced several documentaries including Wonders of the African World, America Beyond the Color Line, and African American Lives. He has also hosted PBS programs such as Wonders of the African World, Black in Latin America, and Finding Your Roots.
Preface Introduction Part One - Theory of the Tradition 1. A Myth of Origins 2. The Signifying Monkey and the Language of Signifyin(g) 3. Figures of Signification Part Two - Reading the Tradition 4. The Trope of the Talking Book 5. Zora Neale Hurston and the Spearkerly Text 6. On "The Blackness of Blackness": Ishmael Reed and a Critique of the Sign 7. Color Me Zora: Alice Walker's (Re)Writing of the Speakerly Text