A Jean Toomer Reader Selected Unpublished Writings [Paperback]

Jean Toomer achieved instant recognition as a critic and thinker in 1923 with the publication of his novelCane, a harsh, eloquent vision of black American hardship and suffering. But because of his reclusive, introspective nature, Toomer's fame waned in later years, and today his other contributions to American thought and literature are all but forgotten. Now, this collection of unpublished writings restores a crucial dimension to our understanding of this important African American author. Thematically arranging letters, sketches, poems, autobiography, short stories, a play, and a children's story, Frederik Rusch offers insight into Toomer's mind and spirituality, his feelings on racial identity in America, and his attitudes toward and ideas aboutCane. Rusch highlights Toomer's reflections on America, its people, landscape, and politics, reveals his significance for the problems and issues of today, and helps us understand Toomer not only as writer, but also as social critic, prophet, mystic, and idealist. Exploring Toomer's attempts to find self-realization and transcend social and cultural definitions of race, this book offers a unique view of the United States through the life of one of its most significant and fascinating intellectuals.

I. Cane
1. Pre-Cane
Letter to Waldo Frank, John McClure, Frank, The Liberator, Lola Ridge, Sherwood Anderson
2. Cane
Letter to Gorham Munson, Kenneth Macgowan, Frank
3. Post-Cane
Letter to Frank, Horace Liveright
II. The Mystical Experience
The Experience
III. The Negro, the Blue Man, and the New Race
Introduction: Prejudice; Germ Carriers; The Fable of a Creature
2. The Negro
Negro Psychology in The Emperor Jones
Letter to Sherwood Anderson
The Negro Emergent
3. The Blue Man
Letter to Horace Liveright, Waldo Frank
Not Typically American
Fighting the Vice
4. The New Race
A New Race in America