Gibson, Donald B., ed. Modern Black Poets: A Col-
lection of Critical Essays. New York: Prentice Hall,
1983.
Pettis, Joyce. “Margaret Walker: Black Woman Writer
of the South.” In Southern Women Writers: The
New Generation, edited by Tonette Bond Inge, 9–
- Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.
Ward, Jerry W., Jr. “A Writer for Her People: An Inter-
view with Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander.” Missis-
sippi Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Fall 1988).
Loretta G. Woodard
Walrond, Eric (1898–1966)
An important voice of the HARLEM RENAISSANCE,
journalist, essayist, and short story writer, Eric
Walrond, in his personal life, exemplified the com-
plex immigration patterns of blacks during the
first two decades of the 20th century. His life per-
haps also reveals how these patterns might have
been instrumental in fashioning and defining the
dynamic spectrum of experiences of what ALAIN
LOCKE called the “New Negro.” A British subject,
like poet CLAUDE MCKAY, Walrond was born in
Georgetown, British Guiana (presently Guyana);
he grew up in Barbados and Colón, Panama,
where his father, who deserted the family, worked
on the Panama Canal. Walrond completed his sec-
ondary education, becoming bilingual and “thor-
oughly exposed to Spanish culture” (Bone, 175).
Before migrating to New York at age 20, Walrond
had worked as a secretary and stenographer and
launched a successful career in journalism work-
ing as a reporter and sportswriter for the Panama
Star Herald.
In the United States, Walrond attended City
College of New York and Columbia University,
where he studied creative writing. His strong an-
tipathy for the racism and oppression he came to
perceive as global problems led Walrond to align
himself with MARCUS GARVEY’s Universal Negro
Improvement Association (UNIA), serving as the
editor of Garvey’s newspaper, The Negro World, as
well as the editor of the National Urban League’s
journal, OPPORTUNITY. In his article “The Negro
Faces America” (Current History, 1923), Walrond,
who had also owned and edited the Brooklyn and
Long Island Informer, voiced his ideological dif-
ferences with BOOKER T. WASHINGTON, W. E. B.
DUBOIS, and the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE. He concluded
that Garvey was the only extant black leader who
could lead the New Negro movement. For Wal-
rond, the New Negro was above all “race conscious.
He does not want to be like the white man.” In the
end he would become dissatisfied with Garvey and
separate himself from the UNIA movement.
A Guggenheim grant took Walrond back to
Panama and to the West Indies to study and write
about the experience of black immigrants and
workers in these areas. Thus, like McKay, Wal-
rond spent many of the years associated with the
Harlem Renaissance traveling and living abroad,
although, as many critics note, he helped foster
this important black cultural and literary moment
in African-American history through his reviews,
stories, and essays.
Walrond was best known for his short stories,
many of which were published in Opportunity.
Many of these stories, such as “On Being a Domes-
tic,” focused on working-class blacks and the rac-
ism they often encountered in America. His most
important book was his collection of 10 stories,
TROPIC DEATH (1926), in which he looks through
international lenses at the black experience.
Generally, Tropic Death was well received.
Walrond’s efforts and style were often compared
to JEAN TOOMER and Cane, although most critics
conceded that Toomer was the more talented and
gifted of the two writers. At the height of his liter-
ary career, Walrond left the United States to travel
throughout Europe. He settled in England, where
he died in 1966.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bone, Robert. Down Home: A History of Afro-Ameri-
can Short Fiction from Its Beginnings to the End
of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Capricorn
Books, 1975.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Walrond, Eric. “The Wharf Rats.” In The Portable
Harlem Renaissance Reader, edited by David Le-530 Walrond, Eric