Amelia E. Johnson

Amelia E. Johnson (Amelia Etta Hall Johnson, 1858–1922) was a writer of novels, short fiction and poetry, born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Amelia E Johnson in 1892

As an editor she sought to encourage other writers with African American ancestry by publishing their works in a short periodical. Writing under the name Mrs. A. E. Johnson, her approach to fiction has been compared to Emma Dunham Kelley and Paul Laurence Dunbar, focusing on the social circumstances of her characters rather than identifying ethnic or "racial" aspects. The study of her works by literary critics after a century of obscurity renewed interest in Johnson, though she had been praised by her contemporaries. Johnson's works include children's literature, Sunday school fiction, and three novels: Clarence and Corrinne, which was the first Black author to be published by the American Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia, The Hazeley Family (1894), and Martina Meriden (1901). She was married to a well-known Baptist minister, the Rev. Harvey Johnson, whom she met after moving to Boston in the United States.[1][2] She also published in many well-known Black print venues, such as The Baptist Messenger, The American Baptist, and Our Women and Children.[3]

She is also the English translator of "Sleeping Beauty" by Charles Perrault (Dodd Mead and Company, 1921)

In 1887, she published The Joy and, in 1888, she published The Ivy. These short-lived magazines targeted young African Americans and educated them about their culture, The Joy targeting young girls with stories and The Ivy spreading awareness of African American history.[4]

References
  1. "Amelia E. Johnson (1858—1922)". The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. OUP. January 2002. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
  2. Page, Yolanda Williams (2007). Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 9780313334290.
  3. Harris, Jennifer (2016). ""Black Canadian Contexts: The Case of Amelia E. Johnson"". African American Review. 49: 241–259 – via Project Muse.
  4. Sergeant, Sabrina Ehmke. "The Tar Baby and the Tomahawk: Race and Ethnic Images in American Children's Literature, 1880-1939". childlit.unl.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
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