On the Back Cover
Advance Praise for Dream-Singers
""You will find a great storehouse of folk and literary treasures in this ambitious book that speaks to anyone who has ever thought about his or her dreams. It's a wonderful adventure and I highly recommend it.""-Clarence Major, author of Configurations and Juba to Jive
Acclaim for Dream Reader
also by Anthony Shafton
""A book so unique in its combination of scholarship, clarity, and down-to-earth feeling about dreams that I find it hard to fully express the excitement and satisfaction I felt on reading it.""-Montague Ullman, M.D., Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Author of Working with Dreams and Dream Telepathy
""Breathtaking . . . the single most complete and thorough analysis of contemporary dream theories yet written . . . Shafton has a keen sense for what people most want to know about dreams, and an admirable ability to explain difficult concepts without oversimplifying them.""-Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., Past President, The Association for the Study of Dreams, Author of The Wilderness of Dreams
Front Cover Glimpse
"Dream-singers all-My people."-Langston Hughes
A reverence for dreams runs like a clear spring through African American experience. Dream-singers distills this heritage through a vivid look at the private dream lives of more than one hundred African Americans. Gathered here are the dreams and understandings of the famous-such as literary lions John Edgar Wideman and Gloria Naylor-as well as everyday people: men, women, and children who discuss their dreams and visions and what they mean.
Anthony Shafton explores the prevalence of ancestor dreams, the belief in predictive dreaming, the openness to dreamlike experiences in the waking state, and the link between dreams and spirituality at the core of the black dream experience. The exploration reveals an intriguing African connection underlying the tapestry of beliefs and attitudes. From traditional dream signs and dreams "meant for others" to picking numbers and deja vu, Dream-singers illuminates a wealth of interpretations and approaches, offering every reader invaluable insights into a distinctly American spiritual tradition.
About the Author
ANTHONY SHAFTON is a writer and independent scholar who has been researching and writing on the subject of dreams since the early 1980s. He has an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Harvard and a master's in creative writing from Stanford. Shafton began researching African American dreams in 1990 and has published on the subject in Dream Time, the magazine of the Association for the Study of Dreams. He lives in Indiana.
