publishing house Farrar, Straus and Giroux. With
the poet Robert Frost, Farrar was instrumental in
the founding of the Breadloaf Writer’s Conference
at Middlebury College and served as its first director.
Born in Burlington, Vermont, to Edward and
Sally Wright Farrar, he enrolled at Yale University
following a stint in the armed services, where he
served as an aviation inspector in the air corps dur-
ing World War I. He graduated in 1919, the same
year in which he won the Yale Younger Poets Prize
for his volume entitled Forgotten Shrines.He mar-
ried Margaret Petheridge, the crossword editor for
THENEWYORKTIMES,in 1926. The couple had
four children.
Farrar had a long career as a writer and in pub-
lishing. In addition to his early years as a reporter for
The New York World,he served as editor of The Book-
man,a literary journal established by George Doran.
He made his move to publishing in the late 1920s
and until just a few years before his death, serving as
chairman of the board of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
His own Harlem Renaissance–era works included
the memoir entitled Songs for Children(1921), books
of poetry such as The Middle Twenties(1924), and
Songs for Johnny-Jump-Up(1930), as well as edited
collections of The Bookman Anthology of Verse(1922)
and The Bookman Anthology of Essays(1923).
CHARLESS. JOHNSON, the editor of OPPOR-
TUNITY,invited Farrar to serve as one of the judges
in the first Opportunityliterary prize contest held in
- Farrar, who in 1922 helped found the first
American chapter of Poets, Essayists and Novelists
(PEN), was delighted to participate. He was com-
mitted to identifying promising writers and wel-
comed the opportunity to learn firsthand about the
emerging group of African-American authors.
Father Divine’s Peace Mission
An extremely successful interracial mission estab-
lished in HARLEMin 1933. The mission provided
food and shelter and disseminated the ministry
and racial uplift philosophies of Father Divine
(GEORGE BAKER), an enigmatic and influential
minister and cultist.
Bibliography
Reid, Ira. “Negro Movements and Messiahs, 1900–1949.”
Phylon10, no. 4 (1949): 362–369.
Watts, Jill. God, Harlem U.S.A.: The Father Divine Story.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Weisbrot, Robert. Father Divine and the Struggle for
Racial Equality.Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1983.Fauset, Arthur Huff(1899–1963)
A historian, writer, teacher, and school principal
who became a leading figure in PHILADELPHIAdur-
ing the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Flemington,
New Jersey, to Redmond and Bella Fauset, he was
the younger half brother of accomplished writer
and scholar JESSIEREDMONFAUSET. He earned his
B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIAand went on to serve in the U.S.
Army during World War II. He began teaching in
the Philadelphia public schools during his college
years, and his career spanned nearly 30 years, from
1918 through 1946. A fellow in the American An-
thropological Association, he was published regu-
larly in the leading New York-based periodicals
OPPORTUNITY and THE CRISIS, and in BLACK
OPALS,the Pennsylvania black literary arts journal.
In 1926 Opportunityawarded him one of its literary
prizes, and he became one of the select writers to
publish in FIRE!!,the ambitious but short-lived
periodical founded by LANGSTONHUGHES,ZORA
NEALEHURSTON,BRUCENUGENT, and AARON
DOUGLAS. He enjoyed a longtime friendship with
ALAINLOCKEand, like Hurston and Hughes, re-
ceived monies from CHARLOTTE OSGOOD
MASON to support his writing and research of
black culture.
In addition to his extensive periodical publi-
cations, Fauset published four works of nonfic-
tion. His first book, For Freedom: A Biographical
Sketch of the American Negro,appeared in 1927
and was followed three years later by Folklore from
Nova Scotia,a collection of essays and observa-
tions. In 1938 he published Sojourner Truth: God’s
Faithful Pilgrim,one of the earliest modern biogra-
phies and the first black-authored study of the in-
spired former slave and evangelist. In 1942 Fauset
published Black Gods of the Metropolis: Negro Reli-
gious Cults of the Urban North.It was a revision of
“A study of five Negro religious cults in the
Philadelphia of today,” his University of Pennsyl-
vania doctoral thesis. In 1969 he collaboratedFauset, Arthur Huff 149