Jean Toomer

Mark Whalan (University of Oregon)

Ed. by Nick Selby, University of East Anglia
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

Born 26 Dec 1894
Died 30 Mar 1967
Activity 1918-1956

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

African American

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Poet
Story-writer

Other

Aphorist

Resources

Toomer's Works

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Jean Toomer was an American author now chiefly remembered for his book

Cane

(1923). This collection of poetry, prose and drama was among the most important early texts of the Harlem (or New Negro) Renaissance, and has increasingly been seen as one of the most insightful texts of early US modernism on the intersections of race, gender, class, and formal experimentalism. From 1924 Toomer was also a keen adherent of the Gurdjieff method of personal development, and devoted much of his adult life to training and writing about this system of spiritual and psychological being.

Toomer was born into a relatively wealthy middle-class, African American family in Washington D.C. His father, Nathan Toomer, abandoned the family when Toomer was an infant, forcing his mother, Nina, to return to her

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2656 words

Citation: Whalan, Mark. "Jean Toomer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4423, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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