LITR 5535: American Romanticism
 
Sample Student Research Project, fall 2003

Charley R. A. Bevill

November 2003

Forgotten Queens:

The Women of the Harlem Renaissance:

A Research Journal

To A Dark Girl

I love you for your brownness,

And the rounded darkness of your breast,

I love you for the breaking sadness in your voice

And shadows where your wayward eye-lids rest.

Something of old forgotten queens

Lurks in the lithe abandon of your walk

And something of the shackled slave

Sobs in the rhythm of your talk.

Oh, little brown girl, born for sorrow’s mate,

Keep all you have of queenliness,

Forgetting that you once were slave,

And let your full lips laugh at Fate!

Gwendolyn B. Bennett

(1902-1981)

As a teenager, I read profusely. Admittedly, most of the books I was reading were romance novels. But in each book, I found myself transported away from my limited and limiting world. I became the characters in these novels. After I became a parent, I began to realize how little I knew about my own world – where I came from, the stories of my past. I expected my children would begin to ask me the questions I never pondered.

I returned to school. I found myself loaded with the writings of men (mostly) and women of a variety of eras and genres. Eventually, I was introduced to the Harlem Renaissance through the works of Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960). I had heard of and read the writers Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson in middle and high school. But the “New Negro” movement was new to me. As I read Hurston, I wanted to know more about Hurston, the person, and what motivated her. Were there others like her? Surely, Hurston couldn’t be the only woman writer of the time. Who was involved in this “New Negro” movement? What other work besides literature came from this era? What about the other women? I could not get past the “old forgotten queens.”

I began researching the Women of the Harlem Renaissance in November 2001 as an undergraduate in a minority literature class. I quickly realized my vision of compiling a comprehensive study of these women and the era was overly ambitious, to say the least. Research on my own time, was not to become a reality, as time never seemed to be my own. I decided, after several attempts, to concentrate the undergraduate project on Zora Neale Hurston. I retained, however, the notes and information collected for the failed project with the promise to myself to return to the pursuit.

When the opportunity arose to continue my research of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance in the form of this project, it was with much excitement that I jumped at the chance to explore the subject. I assumed my findings would be much the same as November 2001: there would be little information on the Women of the Harlem Renaissance or the information would be obscure.

Some of the information I saved from my previously failed attempt was from internet sources. I decided to begin this journey with the websites I found informative in November 2001. Of those still available, only two have been updated.

http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html

The Harlem Renaissance. This is an excellent site. Jill Diesman, the site’s creator, gives a brief history of the Harlem Renaissance. She includes an in-depth bibliography of ten women writers from the period, poetry and/or prose by these women and a few select men, and the artwork of three painters, one of which is a woman, Lois Mailou Jones. Ms. Diesman’s site also has several useful links.

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/9intro.html

Pal: Perspectives in American Literature – A Research and Reference Guide – An Ongoing Project by Paul P. Reuben. Although this site claims to be a brief introduction to the Harlem Renaissance, Reuben is thorough. He covers important events and personalities and gives a clear understanding of the era. This site has several site links and outside links for additional information.

There were several sites that were no longer available since my first exploration. The one I find most unfortunate is http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/7726/... This site contained works by several of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance, many of these women’s works not readily available on-line.

To my relief, there have been many websites with information on the Harlem Renaissance created since my first attempt. Few are devoted specifically to the women of the era. The sites that have promising titles have limited information on the women writers included or extensive information which can be found on any number of other websites on one or two of these great women.

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_list_harlem.html

Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Although the biographical information is limited, this is a wonderful site to start researching the Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps if I had started here, the site would have saved me considerable effort. The initial page gives the most comprehensive listing on the web of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance I have found to date. This list includes writers, artists, performers, and entrepreneurs. The site has several site links as well as outside links for further discovery.

http://www.si.umich.edu/CHICO/Harlem/index.html

Harlem 1900-1940: An African-American Community. This is a very interesting site, containing an extensive timeline. Under each decade, most of the years have site links which describe notable people and happenings of that year. Some of these entries have additional outside links.

I was excited to find that I am not alone in my quest for an understanding of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance: who they were, what their lives stood for, what their art was about, why their work went virtually unnoticed until recent years. There are many scholars who have written about the Harlem Renaissance with a resurgence of research in the last few decades. I poured through numerous books and anthologies. There are hundreds of works that reference any number of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Many, however, contain only a small blurb about one of these women, occasionally two.

The following is an annotated compilation of some of the bibliographies I came across in my research as well as recently published books and anthologies I have encountered that were written during or about the Harlem Renaissance. For a title to make my initial list I had to have either read the text or it had to have been listed in numerous other bibliographies. Because my list was becoming extremely long, when I found limited information in a work, I deleted the title from this list. A second filter was then incorporated; the text had to be available through the University of Houston library system. The works included here are either available at one of the libraries. I have therefore, included the call numbers. This is by no means a complete list of the writings from or about the period, or the only works in the University of Houston library system. Due to limited space, entries in journals and periodicals also have not been included.

Albertine, Susan, ed. A Living of Words: American Women in Print Culture. Knoxville: U of Tennessee P, 1995. Z473 .L79 1995

Alexander, Eleanor. Lyrics of Sunshine and Shadow: The Tragic Courtship and Marriage of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Alice Ruth Moore: A History of Love and Violence Among the African American Elite. New York, New York UP, 2001. PS1557 .A76 2001

Although not about the work of Alice Dunbar-Nelson (1875-1935), this text contains detailed information of her life with her husband, Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Allen, Carol. Black Women Intellectuals: Strategies of Nation, Family, and Neighborhood in the Works of Pauline Hopkins, Jessie Fauset, and Marita Bonner. New York: Garland, 1988. PS153.N5 A3996 1998

Andrews, William L., ed. Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. PS647.A35 C57 1994

Andrews, William L., Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris, eds. The Oxford Companion to African-American Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1997. PS153 .N5 096 1997

This is a comprehensive reference work on African American literature. It contains information on many of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance.

Batker, Carol J. Reforming Fictions: Native, African, and Jewish American Women’s Literature and Journalism in the Progressive Era. New York: Columbia UP, 2000. PS 366.S62 B38 2000

Bell, Bernard W. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1987. PS153.N5 B43 1987

Bennett, Michael, and Vanessa D. Dickerson, eds. Recovering the Black Female Body: Self-Representations by African American Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2001. E185.86 .R37 2001

Black, Allida M., ed. Modern American Queer History. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. HQ76.3.U5 M63 2001

Bloom, Harold, ed. Alice Walker. New York: Chelsea House, 1989. PS3573.A425 Z53 1989

---, ed. Black American Women Fiction Writers. Writers of English: Lives and Works Series. New York: Chelsea House, 1995. PS374.N4 B57 1995

This text contains information on a few of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance. The work includes a brief biography on each, along with extracts from critical writings about these women and their work.

Botshon, Lisa, and Meredith Goldsmith, eds. Middlebrow Moderns: Popular American Women Writers of the 1920s. Boston: Northeastern UP, 2003. PS374. W6 M53 2003

Boyd, Herb, ed. Autobiography of a People: Three Centuries of African American History Told by Those Who Lived It. New York: Doubleday, 2000. E185 .A97 2000

Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston. New York: Scribner, 2003. PS3515.U789 Z63 2003

Brown, Wesley, and Amy Ling, eds. Imagining America: Stories From the Promised Land. New York: Persea Books, 2002. PS647.E85 I45 2002

Brown-Guillory, Elizabeth, ed. Wines in the Wilderness: Plays by African American Women From the Harlem Renaissance to the Present. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. PS628. N4W56 1990

Carby, Hazel. Reconstructing Womanhood: The Emergence of the Afro-American Woman Novelist. New York: Oxford UP, 1987. PS153. N5 C37 1987

Christian, Barbara. Black Women Novelists: The Development of a Tradition, 1892-1976. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980. PS374 .N4C5

Clinton, Catherine, ed. I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African-American Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 811.54I1 1998

This collection of African-American poetry contains works from Lucy Terry (1730-1821) to Rita Dove (b.1952). Included are the works of several poets from the Harlem Renaissance. Angelina Weld Grimke (1880-1958), Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966) and Gwendolyn Bennett are among the featured poets. A short biography is also included on each of the poets. The collection is beautifully illustrated by Stephen Alcorn and is a wonderful book to be enjoyed by young and old alike.

Cronin, Gloria L., ed. Critical Essays on Zora Neale Hurston. New York: G.K. Hall, 1998. PS3515.U789 Z67 1998

Cullen, Countee, ed. Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets. Secaucus: Carol Pub. Group, 1993. PS591.N4C8 1993

Cuthbert, Marion Vera. April Grassess. New York: Woman’s Press, 1936. PS3505.U963A8 1936

---. Education and Marginality: A Study of the Negro Woman College Graduate. 1942. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1987. LC2781 .C8 1987

Davidson, Cathy N., et al, ed. The Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. PS147 .O94 1995

Davis, Marianna W., ed. Contributions of Black Women to America. 2 vols. New York: Kenday Press, 1981. E185.86 .C585 1982

Davis, Rose Parkman. Zora Neale Hurston: an Annotated Bibliography and Reference Guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1997. PS3515 .U789 D38 1997

Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman’s Life Unveiled. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1994. PS3523. A7225Z63 1994

Drake, William. The First Wave: Women Poets in America, 1915-1945. New York: MacMillan, 1987. PS151. D7 1987

Dunbar-Nelson, Alice. An Alice Dunbar-Nelson Reader. Ed. R. Ora Williams. Washington: UP of America, 1979. PS2459.N287 A6 1979

---, ed. The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer: The Poet and His Song. 1920. New York: G. K. Hall, 1996. PN4121 .D9238 1996

---. Give Us Each Day: The Diary of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Ed. Gloria Hull. New York: W. W. Norton, 1984. PS3507.U6228 Z465 1984

---. The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories. New York: Dodd Mead, 1899. PS3527 .E36G6

---, ed. Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence: The Best Speeches Delivered by the Negro from the Days of Slavery to the Present Time. 1914. New York: G. K. Hall, 1997. PS663.N4 M37 1997

---. The Works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson. Ed. Gloria T. Hull. 3 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1988. PS3507 .U6228 1988

This three volume collection of the works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson contains not only her work but a chronology of Dunbar-Nelson and an informative introduction by Gloria T. Hull.

Fauset, Jessie Redmon. The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life. 1931. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1995. PS3511 .A864 C48 1995

---. Comedy, American Style. 1933. New York: G. K. Hall, 1995. PS3511.A864C65

---. Plum Bun. 1928. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. PS3511.A864P57 1990

---. There is Confusion. 1924. Boston: Northeastern UP 1989. PS3511.A864T47 1989

Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce O. Stricklin, eds. Frye Street and Environs: The Collected Works of Marita Bonner. Boston: Beacon, 1987. PS3503.O439F 78 1987

Fout, John C., and Maura Shaw Tantillo, eds. American Sexual Politics: Sex, Gender, and Race Since the Civil War. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993. HQ18.U5 A46 1993

Gates, Henry L., Jr., ed. Bearing Witness: Selections from African-American Autobiography in the Twentieth Century. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. E185.96 .B35 1991

Gates, Henry L., Jr., and K. A. Appiah, eds. Zora Neale Hurston: Critical Perspectives Past and Present. New York: Amistad, 1993. PS3515.U789 Z963 1993

Gavin, Christy, ed. African American Women Playwrights: A Research Guide. New York: Garland Pub., 1999. PS 153.N5 G29 1999

This informative reference work gives a brief biography and annotated bibliography of each of the playwrights featured. Gavin’s list of playwrights includes Marita Bonner (1898-1971), Mary Burrill (1884-1946), Alice Dundbar-Nelson, Jessie Fauset (1884-1961), Angelina Weld Grimke, Zora Neale Hurston, and Georgia Douglas Johnson. Gavin also includes a list of plays with production information and plot summaries of the major plays, profiles, interviews, reviews and criticism of the plays and the playwrights.

Greene, J. Lee. Time’s Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer’s Life and Poetry. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1977. PS3537.P444Z65

Grimke, Angelina Weld. Rachel: A Play in Three Acts. 1920. College Park: McGrath, 1969. PS3513. R744R3 1969

Grimke, Angelina Weld. Selected Works of Angelina Weld Grimke. Ed. Carolivia Herron. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. PS 3513.R744A6 1991

Hamer, Judith A., and Martin J. Hamer, eds. Centers of the Self: Stories by Black American Women, From the Nineteenth Century to the Present. New York: Hill and Wang, 1994. PS647. A35C46 1994

Hardy, Gayle J. American Women Civil Rights Activists: Bio-bibliography of 68 Leaders, 1825-1992. Jefferson: McFarland, 1993. JC599.U5 H273 1993

Harris, Trudier, and Thadious M. Davis, eds. Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. Vol. 51. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. PN451.D5 v.51

Hatch, Shari Dorantes, and Michael R. Strickland, eds. African-American Writers: A Dictionary. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000. PS153 .N5 A3444 2000

Along with the dictionary/encyclopedic entries, this work contains a “Chronology of Writers,” and a “Chronology of Firsts,” in African American writing.

Hemenway, Robert. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1977. PS3515.U789Z7

Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Brooklyn: Carlson Press, 1993. E185.86 .B542 1993

This two volume work features most of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Each entry contains biographical information and most include bibliographical information and a photograph. Volume I has an alphabetical list of the contents by topic of both volumes. Volume II has a list of biographic entries divided into categories of achievement. Volume II also contains “Black Women in the United States: A Chronology,” compiled by Jamie Hart and Elsa Barkley Brown. This list begins with an entry for 1619: “Twenty Africans, three of them women, are put ashore off a Dutch frigate at Jamestown, Virginia” and continues through 1992.

---, ed. Facts on File Encyclopedia of Black Women in America: Literature. 10 vols. New York: Facts on File, 1997. E185. 96 .F2 1997

Holloway, Karla. The Character of the Word: The Texts of Zora Neale Hurston. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1987. PS3515.U789 Z72 1987

Howard, Lillie P. Zora Neale Hurston. Boston: Twayne Press, 1980. PS3515.U789.Z73

Hopkins, Lee Bennett, ed. Side By Side: Poems to Read Together. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. 811 H795sb

Although this work is not limited to the poets of the Harlem Renaissance, this is a lovely book for caregiver and child to share.

Hughes, Langston, and Zora Neale Hurston. Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life. 1931. Eds. George Houston Bass and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991. PS3515 .U274 M85 1991

Hull, Gloria T. Color, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1987. PS153.N5H84 1987

Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road. 1942. New York: HarperPerennial, 1996. PS3515.U789 Z465 1996

---. Go Gator and Muddy the Water: Writings. Ed. Pamela Bordelon. New York: W W. Norton, 1999. GR111.A47 H84 1999

---. I Love Myself When I am Laughing...& Then Again When I am Looking Mean & Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader. Ed. Alice Walker. Old Westbury: Feminist Press, 1979. PS3515.U789A6 1979

---. Jonah’s Gourd Vine. 1934. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. PS3515.U789 J66 1990

---. Moses, Man of the Mountain. 1939. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991. PS3515.U789M6 1991

---. Mules and Men. 1935. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. GR111.A47 H86 1990

---. The Sanctified Church. 1981. New York: Marlowe, 1997. BR563.N4 H87 1997

---. Seraph on the Suwanee. 1948. New York: HarperPerennial, 1991. PS3515.U789S47 1991

---. Spunk, the Selected Stories of Zora Neale Hurston. Berkeley: Turtle Island Foundation, 1985. PS3515.U789S68 1985

---. Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica. 1938. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. BL2490 .H88 1990

---. Their Eyes Were Watching God. 1937. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. PS3515 .U789 T5 2000

Hutchinson, George. The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White. Cambridge: Belknap, 1995. PS153.N5 H86 1995

This text is very informative with regard to the culture and politics of the era. Many of the women are mentioned.

Johnson, Helene. This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson: Poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Ed. Verner D. Mitchell. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 2000. PS53560. O37834 A6 2000

In his introduction, editor Verner D. Mitchell maintains this is the first text published of the writings of Helene Johnson (1906-1995) whose work is found mostly in difficult to locate journals and magazines of her era. Mitchell has composed an informative work with a collection of Johnson’s poetry, a chronology, and collected letters. The text also includes an afterword by Johnson’s daughter, Abigail McGrath.

Jones, Sharon L. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002. PS153.N5 J68 2002

Kaplan, Carla, ed. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters. New York: Doubleday, 2002. PS3515.U789 Z48 2002

Kein, Sybil, ed. Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free People of Color. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2000. F380. C87 C7 2000

Kellner, Bruce. Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary of the Era. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984. NX511.N4 H37 1984

This informative dictionary gives most of the important people and events of the Harlem Renaissance. The text has several useful appendixes. There is “A Chronology of Significant Events, 1917-1935,” three bibliography listings and the impressive “A Glossary of Harlem Slang.”

Kelly, Katherine E., ed. Modern Drama by Women, 1880s-1930s: An International Anthology. New York: Rutledge, 1996. PN6119.8 .M63 1996

Knopf, Marcy, ed. The Sleeper Wakes: Harlem Renaissance Stories by Women. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1993. PS647.A35 S58 1993

Larsen, Nella. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen. Ed. Charles R. Larson. New York: Anchor, 2001. PS3523.A7225 A6 2001

---. An Intimation of Things Distant: The Collected Fiction of Nella Larsen. Ed. Charles R. Larson. New York: Anchor, 1992. PS3523.A7225A6 1992

---. Passing. 1929. New York: Modern Library, 2000. PS3523.A7225 P37 2000

---. Quicksand. 1928. Ed. Thadious M. Davis. New York: Penguin, 2002. PS3523.A7225Q55 2002

Larson, Charles R. Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella Larsen. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1993. PS3539.O478Z73 1993

Lewis, David Levering, ed. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Viking, 1994. PS153.N5P67 1994

Lowe, John. Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston’s Cosmic Comedy. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1994. PS3515 .U789 Z77 1994

Luker, Ralph E., ed. Black and White Sat Down Together: The Reminiscences of an NAACP Founder. New York: Feminist Press, 1995. E185.97 O95 A3 1995

Major, Clarence, ed. Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993. PS647 .A35 C35 1992

McLendon, Jacquelyn Y. The Politics of Color in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1995. PS3511.A864 Z77 1995

McMurry, Linda O. To Keep the Waters Troubled: The Life of Ida B. Wells. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. E185.97. W55 M38 1998

Miller, Ericka M. The Other Reconstruction: Where Violence and Womanhood Meet in the Writings of Wells-Barnett, Grimke, and Larsen. New York: Garland Pub., 2000. PS169. L95 M55 2000

Mitchell, Angelyn, ed. Within the Circle: An Anthology of African American Literary Criticism from the Harlem Renaissance to the Present. Durham: Duke UP, 1994. PS153.N5 W58 1994

The first two sections of this text are “The Harlem Renaissance” and “Humanistic/Ethical Criticism and the Protest Tradition.” This work contains literary criticism by the writers of the Harlem Renaissance among others. It was interesting to read these writers opinions of the era in essays such as Zora Neale Hurston’s “What White Publishers Won’t Print.”

Newson, Adele S. Zora Neale Hurston: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. PS3515.U789Z83 1987

Ovington, Mary White. Half a Man: The Status of the Negro in New York. New York: Schocken Books, 1969. F128.9.N3 O9 1969b

---. Portraits in Color. 1927. Freeport: Books for Libraries Press, 1971. E185.96.O96 1971

---. The Walls Came Tumbling Down. 1947. New York: Schocken Books, 1970. E185.5.N276 O9 1970

Perkins, Kathy A. ed. Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology of Plays before 1950. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1989. PS628.N4B54 1989

Peters, Pearlie Mae Fisher. The Assertive Woman in Zora Neale Hurston’s Fiction, Folklore, and Drama. New York: Garland Pub., 1998. PS3515.U789 Z8 1998

Porter, Dorothy B. North American Negro Poets: A Bibliographical Checklist of Their Writings, 1760-1944. Hattiesburg: Book Farm, 1945. Z1361.N39P6

Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth E. Randolph. Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1945. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990. PS153. N5 R65 1990

Ruff, Shawn Stewart, ed. Go the Way Your Blood Beats: An Anthology of Lesbian and Gay Fiction by African-American Writers. New York: H. Holt, 1996. PS648.H57 G6 1996

Rush, Theressa G., Carol F. Myers, and Esther S. Arata. Black American Writers Past and Present: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary. 2 vols. Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1975. PS153.N5 R865 1975

This work is done in two volumes: Volume 1: A-I, Volume 2: J-Z. The work is mostly a bibliography although Rush has included biographical information on several of her entries. Although Rush has bibliographical information on several of our women, the biographies are limited. This is still a good reference work.

Russell, Sandi. Render Me My Song: African American Women Writers From Slavery to the Present. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990. PS153 .N5 R87 1990

Sandi Russell has written several essays on African American Women Writers. In them she discusses the works of these writers and includes excerpts. Her essay “Words to the White Word” includes the works of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Angelina Grimke, Anne Spencer (1882-1975), Georgia Douglas Johnson, Jessie Fauset, and Nella Larsen (1893-1964), all Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Russell’s essay “Urban Realities” discusses the work of Dorothy West (1907-1998), among others. There are separate essays on Zora Neale Hurston and Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000).

Salem, Dorothy, C., ed. African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary. Biographical Dictionaries of Minority Women Series. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993. E185. 96 .A45 1993

Not limited to the Harlem Renaissance, this work focuses on the historical achievements of nearly three hundred women, from Lucy Terry (1730-1821) to Gail Devers (b.1966). Set up like a dictionary or encyclopedia, the book has a brief biography on each entry and includes a short bibliography on the women featured. On a personal note, the series editor is University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Dr. Angela Howard (Zophy).

Salzman, Jack, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, eds. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 5 vols. New York: MacMillan, 1996. E185.E54 1996

This five volume reference work is very extensive in the history of African Americans. The text contains biographical information on most of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance as well as an article in Volume III on the Harlem Renaissance written by David Levering Lewis.

Showalter, Elaine. Sister’s Choice. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. PS147.S48 1991

Sims-Wood, Janet L. The Progress of Afro-American Women: a Selected Bibliography and Resource Guide. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1980. E185.86.S56

This is an extensive bibliography of works by and about African American Women. The works are separated into several categories, from “Armed Services and Defense Work” to “Women’s Rights and Feminist Movement.” Although published in 1980, the text has an intriguing listing of works by and about the Women of the Harlem Renaissance.

Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Epic Lives: One Hundred Black Women Who Made a Difference. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1993. E185.96.E65 1993

Solomon, Barbara H., ed. The Haves and Have-Nots: 30 Stories About Money and Class in America. New York: Signet Classic, 1999. PN451 .H38 1999

Stetson, Erlene, ed. Black Sister: Poetry by Black American Women, 1746-1980. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1981. PS591 .N4 B525 1981

Sylvander, Carolyn Wedin. Jessie Redmon Fauset, Black American Writer. Troy: Whitston, 1981. PS3511.A864Z85

Tate, Claudia. Psychoanalysis and Black Novels: Desire and the Protocols of Race. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. PS374.N4 T36 1998

Trotman, James, ed. Langston Hughes: The Man, His Art, and His Continuing Influence. New York: Garland, 1995. PS3515.U274 Z6733 1995

Turner, Darwin T. In a Minor Chord: Three Afro-American Writers and Their Search for Identity. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1971. PS153.N5T8

Wagner-Martin, Linda, ed. The Oxford Book of Women’s Writing in the United States. New York: Oxford UP, 1995. PS508. W7 O95 1995

Although not limited to the Women of the Harlem Renaissance, this is an enjoyable anthology with several types of writing; from poetry to fiction, memoir to recipe.

Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem Renaissance. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995. PS153.N5 W33 1995

The name I came across most often in researching the Women of the Harlem Renaissance was Cheryl Wall. From what I have gathered, Wall is apparently the most prolific writer on the era. This shows in this wonderful work. Wall gives very detailed essays on three of these women, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. Walls first essay “On Being Young – A Woman – and Colored When Harlem Was in Vogue” gives an overall view of the era and the Women of the Harlem Renaissance.

Ward, Candace, ed. Great Short Stories by American Women. New York: Dover Pub., 1996. PS647.W6 G74 1996

Washington, Mary H. Invented Lives: Narratives of Black Women, 1860-1960. Garden City: Anchor Press, 1987. PS647 .A35I58 1987

Wedin, Carolyn. Inheritors of the Spirit: Mary White Ovington and the founding of the NAACP. New York: Wiley, 1998. E185.98 .O95 W44 1998

Wells-Barnett, Ida B. Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Ed. Alfreda Duster. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1970. E185.97.B26 A3 1970

---. The Memphis Diary of Ida B. Wells. Ed. Miriam DeCosta-Willis. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995. E185.97.W55A3 1995

---. On Lynchings: Southern Horrors, a Red Record, Mob Rule in New Orleans. New York: Arno Press, 1969. HV6457 B37

---. Selected Works of Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Ed. Trudier Harris. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. E185.97 .W55 A2 1991

West, Dorothy. The Living is Easy. 1948. London: Virago, 1987. PS3545.E82794L5 1987

Wintz, Cary D. Black Culture and the Harlem Renaissance. Houston: Rice UP, 1988. PS153 .N5 W57 1988

---, ed. The Harlem Renaissance 1920-1940: Interpretation of an African American Literary Movement. 7 vols. New York: Garland, 1996. PS153 .N4 H24 1996

Woods, Paula L., ed. Spooks, Spies, and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction. New York: Doubleday, 1995. PS648.D4 S64 1995

Woodson, Jon. To Make a New Race: Gurdjieff, Toomer, and the Harlem Renaissance. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1999. PS 3539. O478 Z95 1999

Woolley, Lisa. American Voices of the Chicago Renaissance. DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 2000. PS285.C47 W66 2000

Worley, Demetrice A., and Jesse Perry, Jr., ed. African American Literature: An Anthology of Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Lincolnwood: National Textbook, 1993. PS508.N3 A33 1993

The following is a list of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance that I have found to date. The information I have on some of these women is limited due to time constraints. A few of the women’s works are out of print and finding the biographical information was difficult. There were several other names that I found mentioned in different places, but I have as yet been unable to locate any definitive information. These women’s names have been left off this list. If not mentioned above, the information that I have gathered is included in this list.

Regina M. Anderson (Andrews): (1901-?) playwright, librarian.

pseudonym: Ursala/Ursula Trelling.

One of the founders of the Harlem Renaissance, her home was used as a “salon” for writers and artists of the movement.

Josephine Baker: performer.

Gwendolyn Bennett: poet, writer, artist, teacher.

Along with Jessie Redmon Fauset and others, Bennett created the informal writing group “Writer’s Guild.” Bennett never published a volume of her poetry. She died in obscurity.

Marita (Odette) Bonner (Occomy): writer, playwright, teacher.

pseudonym: Joseph Maree Andrew.

Frequented the “salon” of Georgia Douglas Johnson and Jessie Redmon Fauset.

Gwendolyn Brooks: poet.

Brooks won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for her volume of poetry, Annie Allen. Brooks, the youngest member of the Harlem Renaissance was the first African American to win the Pulitzer.

Hallie Q. (Quinn) Brown: (1845/1847/1850-1949) writer, lecturer, activist, teacher.

Mary Burrill: playwright.

Anita Scott Coleman: (1890-1960) writer, poet, teacher.

Mae V. Cowdery: poet.

Marion Vera Cuthbert: writer, poet.

Clarissa Scott Delaney: (1901-1927) poet, essayist.

Most of Delaney’s work went unpublished and was later lost after her death.

Alice Dunbar-Nelson: writer, poet, essayist.

Jessie Redmon Fauset: writer, poet, editor.

Fauset was the literary editor for the journal Crisis. Fauset also hosted gatherings for writers.

Angelina Weld Grimke: poet, playwright, teacher.

Grimke saw some critical success during the era. She is noted as the writer of love poems about women.

Billy Holliday: performer.

(Lucy) Ariel Williams (Holloway): (1905-1973) poet, pianist, music teacher.

Virginia Houston: poet.

Zora Neale Hurston: writer, playwright, anthropologist.

Hurston is the most widely recognized woman of the Harlem Renaissance with a resurgence of interest in her work in the last two decades. She was close friends with Helene Johnson and Dorothy West and frequented the “salon” of Georgia Douglas Johnson. Although Hurston has work in the Library of Congress, she died penniless in a welfare home and was buried in an unmarked grave.

Georgia Douglas Johnson: poet, playwright.

pseudonym: Palel Tramaine.

Douglas was the most famous woman poet of the Harlem Renaissance. From her home in Washington, D. C. she hosted gatherings for the writers of the era.

Helene Johnson: poet.

Lois Mailou Jones: painter.

Nella Larsen (Imes): writer, librarian.

pseudonym: Allen Semi, an anagram for her married name.

In 1930, Larsen became the first African-American to win a Guggenheim fellowship for creative writing.

Florence Mills: performer.

(Mary) Effie Lee Newsome: poet.

Mary White Ovington: (1865-1951) writer, playwright, activist.

Along with Moorfield Storey and W. E. B. DuBois, Ovington created the NAACP.

Ester Popel: (1896-1958) poet, essayist.

Augusta Fells Savage: (1892-1962) artist, poet.

Bessie Smith: performer.

Anne Spencer: poet.

Madame C. J. Walker: entrepreneur.

aka: Sarah Breedlove Walker

Ethel Waters: performer.

Ida B. Wells-Barnett: (1862-1931): writer, activist.

Dorothy West: writer.

The Women of the Harlem Renaissance were in constant contact with each other and provided support for one another. In her research paper, “The Importance of Music During the Harlem Renaissance,” Dendy Farrar states that many writers and other artists used the music of the era for inspiration. I contend that the musicians also used the writers and other artist’s and their works for inspiration as well.

The Harlem Renaissance encompassed the spirit or ideology of Romanticism. This is most notable in the writings of the women of the era. The work of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance looked at African American life from an African American female perspective. Desire and loss, rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, transgressing social boundaries; all can be seen in these writings. However, much like other literary movements, these women’s works were overshadowed by the men of the Harlem Renaissance. Their contributions to the movement and American literature would have continued to go virtually unnoticed if not for writer Alice Walker’s “search for foremothers.”

Through a compilation of several websites and numerous books and anthologies, the story of these women is slowly being told. In the Summer 2002 research journal, “The Harlem Renaissance,” Kellye Nye quoted Laura Bush from her speech at the 2002 Harlem Renaissance event: “The Harlem Renaissance brought great change to American letters, and it broadened the influence of literature and social commentary. The legacy of the Harlem Renaissance spans decades and generations.” For myself, I feel that I have been on a quest toward transcendence, a knowledge and understanding of the legacy of the Women of the Harlem Renaissance. I am closer than I was in November 2001, but there is still more to be done. In researching these women, I found a passage from Sandi Russell’s Render Me a Song. I believe it sums up my journey: “Seated in these libraries, I touched not only the delicate and worn pages of works by black women writers, I touched their lives, as they did mine. They spoke to me; their songs ran through me and informed my own. […T]he many voices of these black women can be heard. They speak to all of us: just listen.”