| The period known as the Harlem Renaissance was one of the most
exciting and productive periods in all aspects of Black culture - art,
literature, philosophy, and music. The years between 1920 and 1930, Harlem was
the center of an awakening that left its mark on the creative world for years to
come.
While Frances spent those years in Cleveland, Ohio at Karamu House, and then in the Soviet Union and Finland, being a part of the creative
community, she knew several of the artists such as Langston Hughes with whom
she'd worked at Karamu. Upon her return to the U.S. in 1936, she settled in New
York. Her friendship with these artists deepened. She and her husband Tony
Williams hosted a party for Countee Cullen shortly before his death. Harold
Jackman was present at her wedding brunch. The bookshelf in her home in L.A.
contained autographed copies of books by Hughes, Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois and
Shirley Graham, all regular visitors to her home. On her walls hung the art work of Jacob Lawrence,
John Biggers, Elizabeth Catlett and many others. In other words, she was an
ardent supporter of all aspects of Black culture.
The books listed below are only a small sample of the works created by those young men and women during this fruitful era.
Langston Hughes's first published poem was the "Weary
Blues" which appeared in the Crisis Magazine in 1926. While he wrote
numerous poems, essays, plays, and short stories, his two
autobiographical works, The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander are outstanding.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was one of the most prolific writers of the period. Between 1924 and 1933, she published four novels, several short stories
and poems, and numerous articles most of which were published in the Crisis
Magazine. As literary editor of the magazine from 1919 to 1926, Fauset
nurtured and encouraged young writers including Hughes, Arna Bontemps, and
Countee Cullen. Her four novels present a vivid picture of the concerns of the
Black middle class during this period. There is Confusion, 1924,
Plum Bun, 1929, The Chinaberry Tree, 1931, and Comedy: American Style,
1933.
Wallace Thurman's Infants of the Spring, published in 1932 is a bitter satire of the artists during the Harlem Renaissance. His first
novel, The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, was published in 1929.
Nella Larsen wrote two novels, Quicksand, 1928 and Passing, 1929. Both deal with the subject of passing, a popular and
controversial subject matter of the day.
Zora Neale Hurston, novelist, folklorist, anthropologist. One of her novels, There Eyes Were Watching God, 1937, is a powerful love story
of Janie Crawford and her quest for fulfillment. The heroine epitomizes the
proud, independent woman who transcends the world in which she lives. Readers
who may be put off by the dialect, I promise, if you stick with the story, you
won't be sorry. Other books by Hurston include Mules and Men, 1935,
Jonah's Gourd Vine, 1934, and Dust Tracks on the Road, 1942.
Claude McKay, poet and novelist, Home to Harlem, 1928, Banjo,
1929 and Banana Bottom, 1933. An interesting critique of Claude McKay
is a book written by Tyrone Tilley, Claude McKay-A Black Poet's Struggle for
Identity.
Countee Cullen, lyric poet, was well-respected by both the Black and the White literary community for his excellent writing ability. His
early works include Color (1925); Copper Sun (1927); The Black
Christ (1929); The Medea (1935); and On these I Stand (1947).
Three of his most famous poems are; "Yet Do I Marvel," "Incident," and "Heritage."
Jean Toomer is best known for Cane, published in 1923. Cane is
a collection of poems, stories, and prose sketches. This work is said to have
spearheaded the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's.
Recently I came across a novel written by Rudolph
Fisher, The Walls of Jericho, first published in 1928. It was
his first novel and it was received with rave reviews. The Walls
of Jericho is a witty, fast-paced novel portraying the lives of Joshua
Jones or Shine, a moving man, Fred Merritt, a successful black lawyer, and
Linda Young, a KM. or kitchen maid, along with an assortment of other
characters. Love, romance, passing, betrayal, revenge,
misunderstanding, all figure in this wonderful novel. Fisher's style
is classic filled with sardonic humor, capturing the flavor of the
day. He even includes an introduction to contemporary Harlemese
words such as boogy, ofay, dickty, and Sheba. Dr. Rudolph Fisher, a
physician and writer, was the author of several detective novels and short
stories. His second novel, The Conjure Man Dies,
published in 1932, was hailed as one of the first African American
detective novels. Unlike some of the works written during the Harlem
Renaissance period aimed at uplifting the race and explaining to others,
his novels are just plain good reading about ordinary folk for ordinary
folk.
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