Scholar re-discovers Black novelist's work

A major scholarly project at the The University of Mississippi - which seeks to list and collect some 1,500 novels written by Black Americans since 1863 - has uncovered new works by Annie Greene Nelson, South Carolina's first Black woman novelist of the 20th century.

Now 85, Ms. Nelson was visisted in her Columbia, S.C., home by Dr. Maryemma Graham, associate professor of English and Afro-American studies and director of the vast Afro-American Novel Project, which has attracted a major grant from the Ford Foundation.

Ole Miss researchers found that, in addition to two known published novels, Ms. Nelson published another on her own and has numerous unpublished materials, including an autobiography,...