The Collected Writings of Wallace Thurman: A Harlem Renaissance Reader

Description

This book is the definitive collection of the writings of Wallace Thurman (1902–1934), providing a comprehensive anthology of both the published and unpublished works of this bohemian, bisexual writer. Widely regarded as the enfant terrible of the Harlem Renaissance, Thurman was a leader among a group of young artists and intellectuals that included Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gwendolyn Bennett, and Aaron Douglas. Through the publication of magazines such as Fire!! and Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life, Thurman tried to organize the younger generation against the ideologies of the older generation of black leaders and intellectuals such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Benjamin Brawley. Thurman also left a permanent mark on the period through his prolific work as a novelist, playwright, short story writer, and literary critic. This collection brings together all of Thurman’s essays, nearly all of his letters to black and white figures of the 1920s, and three previously unpublished major works: Aunt Hagar’s Children, which is a collection of essays, and two full-length plays, Harlem and Jeremiah the Magnificent. The introduction provides a challenging new reevaluation of Thurman and the Harlem Renaissance for both the general reader and scholar.