This collection represents a shared intellectual legacy shaped by two distinct but closely aligned lives.
Everett Hoagland was one of the most significant African American poets of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A poet of conscience, empathy, and spiritual depth, Hoagland’s work engaged powerfully with African American history, the African diaspora, and the moral life of the nation. Praised by Maya Angelou as “someone who cares and someone who comprehends,” he taught poetry for more than three decades at UMass Dartmouth, served as the first Poet Laureate of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and received numerous honors including the American Book Award, the Gwendolyn Brooks Award, and the Langston Hughes Society Award. His papers are held at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Thomas Doane Perry III was an anthropologist, African studies educator, and Peace Corps veteran whose life and work were shaped by years living and teaching abroad, including service in Uganda. Deeply committed to cross-cultural understanding, Perry taught African studies and related subjects and remained actively engaged in international education and global inquiry throughout his life. Over time, he preserved and expanded Hoagland’s working library, adding his own books acquired through decades of teaching, scholarship, and lived experience in Africa and beyond.
Acquired from Doane Perry’s estate, this collection reflects a merged working library devoted to poetry, African and African American studies, anthropology, diaspora history, cultural criticism, and global perspectives. The books gathered here are united not by rarity alone, but by intellectual purpose—bearing witness to a lifetime of shared inquiry into history, justice, culture, and the human spirit.
Each title has been individually reviewed and thoughtfully described for readers, students, and collectors interested in African studies, African American literature, and the enduring conversation between art, history, and moral imagination.
