Coles'study is ambitious in scope, but it is this ambition which ultimately proves to be his downfall. While he ably sketches out a broad overview of the history of African American writers abroad, the brevity of his study does not allow him to do more than skim across the surface of these rich texts. Perhaps if he had limited his study to Europe or Africa or produced a much longer text, he might have been able to deal more adequately with his subject matter. In addition, the datedness of most of Coles' sources make it obvious that this is merely a superficial update of a 20 year old study rather than one rewritten with more recent critical work by Paul Gilroy and many others in mind. The subject is deserving of a major study. Unfortunately, Black Writers Abroad is not it.