Jean Toomer by Robert B Jones

Jean Toomer by Robert B Jones

"This book is what scholars of American and African American literature have needed for quite some time. Robert B. Jones's selection of materials is excellent, and his expert ordering reveals that breadth and evolution of Jean Toomer's thought over several decades. This collection will considerably enlarge our understanding of the author whose reputation remains tied, in large part, to Cane."--Rudolph P. Byrd, Emory University

"Like the intertextual relations between 'black-authored' and 'white-authored' literary works, the relationships between Black and White intellectuals in New York in the 1910s and 1920s, both personally and intellectually, were far more fluid and complex--and productive--than American scholarship has acknowledged. The essays collected here enhance such acknowledgment considerably, with implications for the transformation of our understanding of American modernism as well as the interracial cultural history o the United States. Certainly, such was Robert Jones's large and generous aim in creating this important book."--from the Foreword by Georg Hutchinson

Toomer, Jean: - Jean Toomer (1894-1967) was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Nathan Toomer and Nina Elizabeth Pinchback, both of whom were of white and black heritage. After graduating from the highly regarded all-black M Street School he traveled extensively and attended six institutions of higher education studying agriculture, fitness, biology, sociology, and history. Although he never completed a degree, his wide readings among prominent contemporary poets and writers, and the lectures he attended during his college years, shaped the direction of his writing. From his earliest writings, Toomer insisted on being identified only as American. With ancestry among seven ethnic and national groups, he gained experience in both white and non-white societies, and resisted being classified as a Negro writer. He grudgingly allowed the publisher of Cane to use that term, but wrote to his publisher, Horace Liveright, My racial composition and my position in the world are realities that I alone may determine. Although he wrote prolifically after the publication of Cane, he ceased public literary endeavors from 1950 until his death in 1967.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780870499388
ISBN 10	0870499386
Title	Jean Toomer
Author	Robert B Jones
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	University of Tennessee Press
Year published	1996-10-18
Number of pages	160
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.