Garland of Poems, A Clara Ann Thompson
(1926)
A Garland of Poemswas the second of two volumes
published by CLARAANNTHOMPSON. Produced by
the BOSTON-based Christopher Publishing House,
the book primarily consisted of religious meditations
and patriotic works. Thompson’s frank preface in-
cluded references to her “despotic Muse” and the
fact that she felt compelled to write: “I write... be-
cause I must,” she declared.
Like poet SARAHCOLLINSFERNANDIS, who
honored African-American veterans, Thompson
celebrated the triumphant return of black World
War I fighters.
Bibliography
Boelcskevy, Mary Anne Stewart, ed. Voices in the Poetic
Tradition: Clara Ann Thompson, J. Pauline Smith,
Mazie Earhart Clark.New York: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Garnett, David (1892–1981)
A white British writer who moved in the high liter-
ary circles of the Bloomsbury group. He was the
son of Edward and Constance Garnett, both of
whom were well known for their literary accom-
plishments. His father, the son of the Reading
Room superintendent at the British Museum, was
a publisher whose successes included Joseph Con-
rad. His mother, a translator, completed an English
translation of War and Peaceby Leo Tolstoy. Fol-
lowing the death of his first wife, Rachel Alice
Marshall, Garnett married Angelica Bell, a niece of
Virginia Woolf.
During the 1920s, Garnett owned a book-
store in the SoHo area of NEWYORKCITYand
developed friendships with a number of Harlem
Renaissance–era figures. During that period, he
published four novels, including The Sailor’s Re-
turn.Published by KNOPFin 1925, it told the
tragic story of a sailor who returns to Dorset, En-
gland, with an African princess wife and their
mixed-race child, only to see his wife destroyed by
racial prejudice. The work, inspired by an 18th-
century inn of the same name in East Chaldon,
Dorset, gained critical attention and was re-
viewed in established journals such as the Dial.It
also piqued the interest of prominent Harlem Re-
naissance figures such as CARLVANVECHTEN,
who in October 1925 mentioned the newly pub-
lished work to his close friend, the poet
LANGSTONHUGHES.
The novel complemented works by authors
such as JESSIEFAUSET,NELLALARSEN, and WAL-
TERWHITEthat focused on the politics and social
anxieties relating to interracial relationships and
mixed-race identity. The Sailor’s Returnhas enjoyed
several reincarnations since its publication. In
1978 it became a film directed by Jack Gold and
was adapted for the screen by the British play-
wright James Saunders. In the late 1940s both The
Sailor’s Returnand Garnett’s Lady Into Fox(1922)
were adapted by Marie Rambert as narrative bal-
lets that featured the celebrated ballerina Sally
Gilmour.
Garnett’s friendship with NANCYCUNARD, the
wealthy British-born activist and editor whose
works included Negro: An Anthology (1934),
spanned nearly 40 years. Cunard’s interracial rela-
tionship with Henry Crowder, which resulted in
alienation from her family, prompted her to ask Gar-
nett for an autographed copy of The Sailor’s Return,
a work that resonated with her own experiences.
In 1938, Garnett published an edition of the
letters of T. E. Lawrence, his close friend and the
soldier known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” Garnett
passed away in 1981 at his home in Montcuq,
FRANCE.Bibliography
“David Garnett, 88, Novelist, Dies; A Member of
Bloomsbury Group.” New York Times,20 February
1981, A20.
Cunard, Nancy. These Were the Hours. Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1969.
Ford, Hugh. Nancy Cunard: Brave Poet, Indomitable Rebel
1896–1965.Philadelphia: Chilton, 1968.
Ousby, Ian. “Garnett, David.” In Cambridge Guide to Lit-
erature in English.Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1993.Garvey, Marcus Mosiah(1887–1940)
An outspoken and influential race leader, en-
trepreneur, editor, and poet who mobilized thou-
sands in his “BACK TOAFRICA” campaigns during
the 1920s. Born to Marcus and Sarah Jane Garvey
in St. Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Garvey arrived in the178 Garland of Poems, A