work, COMEDY,AMERICANSTYLE,was published
in 1933. Critics have hailed the work for its
forthright critique of the social pressures that
African Americans face and the aspirations that
they foster for themselves and their families. The
novel’s format, evocative of a stage play, was remi-
niscent of the format with which the writer had
experimented in The Chinaberry Tree.
In each of her four novels, Fauset focused on
issues of self-definition, racial discrimination, black
family dynamics, and passing. There Is Confusion
chronicles the lives of two families and their efforts
to overcome racial discrimination and the demands
of mixed-race identities. Plum Bun, regarded by
many scholars as Fauset’s best and most polished
work, focused on a family in which some members
were able to pass while others were not. The novel
is especially powerful in its account of the bitter-
sweet loss of home and the personal destruction of
the daughter and mother who abandon the family
in search of social privilege and freedoms. Fauset’s
last two novels, both of which were published by
Frederick A. Stokes Company, had to overcome
initial resistance at the press. According to Fauset,
her editors doubted that the eloquent, self-sufficient,
and capable African Americans whom Fauset de-
picted in her novels actually existed. The Chin-
aberry Treeand Comedy, American Styleemployed
new literary forms. The former invoked classical
Greek tragedy, and the latter was modeled on a dra-
matic script and included sections identified as
“Acts” and formal descriptions of “The Plot” and
“The Characters.”
Fauset was a member of DELTASIGMATHETA,
and in this capacity attended the 1921 Second
Pan-African Congress in Europe. In April 1929
Fauset married Herbert Harris, an insurance agent
with the Victory Life Insurance Company and a
World War I veteran. The couple was hosted at
numerous teas held in their honor. The couple wed
in Fauset’s New York apartment, and some 200
guests attended the reception at the nearby Utopia
Neighborhood House. The marriage, which re-
ceived much publicity in the local newspapers in-
cluding the AMSTERDAMNEWS,which published
an article on its front page, apparently prompted
Alain Locke to make what ZORANEALEHURSTON
referred to as “one of the best wise cracks of the
year” and a comment so inappropriate that “if
Jessie ever hears of it he will have to live abroad for
a long time” (Kaplan, 136). When Harris died in
1958, Fauset moved to the Philadelphia home of
her half brother. She lived there until her death on
April 30, 1961.
Fauset’s modest NEW YORK TIMES obituary
emphasized her educational credentials and the
range of works that she published during her life-
time. In addition, it noted that “Miss Fauset’s char-
acters were usually Negroes of ‘background and
ambition’” and that “racial discrimination was one
of her themes” (NYT,3 May 1961). A memorable
1928 New York Timeseditorial on “New Negro
Leadership” hailed Fauset as a writer who provided
“stimulation for all in [her] subtle poetry and am-
bitious prose” (NYT,15 April 1928). Fauset con-
tinues to be celebrated today for her dynamic
professional example, her commitment to educa-
tion, her enterprising efforts to increase awareness
of African-American accomplishments, and her
unwavering investment in the development of the
African-American literary tradition.Bibliography
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Renaissance: A Woman’s Life Unveiled.Baton Rouge:
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Hull, Gloria. Love, Sex, and Poetry: Three Women Writers
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Johnson, James Weldon. The Book of American Negro Po-
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Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race,
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