Henry Louis Gates Jr. books in order
American literary critic, professor and historian
- Born
- 1950
- Country
- United States
- Books
- 42
Henry Louis Gates Jr. has published 4 novels, 24 non-fiction books, 1 children's book and 13 other books, beginning with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (2004). The latest is The Black Church (2021).
Updated September 2026
Where to start with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Start here
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature
Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s most-read book.
Newest
The Black Church
Published 2021.
Standalone novels in order
Finding Oprah's Roots (2007)
The Annotated African American Folktales (2017)
Stony the Road (2019)
The Black Church (2021)
Non-fiction in order
Figures in Black (1987)
The Signifying Monkey (1988)
Reading Black, Reading Feminist (1990)
The Slave's Narrative (1990)
Loose Canons (1992)
Colored People (1994)
The Dictionary of Global Culture (1996)
The African-American Century (2000)
The Greatest Taboo (2001)
Unchained Memories (2002)
In Search of Hannah Crafts (2003)
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley (2003)
America Behind The Color Line (2004)
The African American National Biography (2008)
Call and Response (2010)
Black in Latin America (2011)
Life Upon These Shores (2011)
Black Cool (2012)
The Classic Slave Narratives (2012)
The African Americans (2013)
And Still I Rise: From Black Power to the White House (2015)
Understanding Jim Crow (2015)
Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography (2016)
Making Futures (2019)
Children's books in order
Dark Sky Rising (2019)
Other books in order
"Race," Writing, and Difference (1986)
The Future of the Race (1996)
Wole Soyinka (1996)
Teaching with the Norton Anthology of African American Literature (1997)
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man (1997)
The White Issue (1998)
Africana (1999)
Wonders of the African World (1999)
The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (2004)
The Image Of The Black In Western Art (2010)
Finding Your Roots, Season 2 (2015)
Strange Fruit, Volume I (2016)
Who's Black and Why? (2022)
About Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., popularly known by his childhood nickname "Skip", is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. He is a trustee of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. He rediscovered the earliest known African-American novels and has published extensively on the recognition of African-American literature as part of the Western canon.
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. FAQ
- How many books has Henry Louis Gates Jr. written?
- Henry Louis Gates Jr. has published 4 novels, 24 non-fiction books, 1 children's book and 13 other books that we list, as of September 2026.
- What order should I read Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s books in?
- Publication order is a safe choice; the full list is above. Most readers start with The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.
- What is Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s latest book?
- The Black Church (2021).
- What is Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s most famous book?
- The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (2004) is Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s most widely read book.
Authors like Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.