good days. “When you gaze at me here,” he in-
structs him, “Let that same light / Of faith and ad-
miration / Shine in your eyes / For I have battered
the stark stonewall / Before me... I have kept faith
with you / And now / I have called my signal.”
In fall 1926 Horne collaborated with Georgia
Douglas Johnson, the noted Washington, D.C.,
poet, and with MAYMILLERSULLIVAN, playwright
and daughter of HOWARD UNIVERSITY dean
KELLY MILLER. The three worked with the
KRIGWAPLAYERSon the New York City produc-
tion of BLUEBLOOD, Johnson’s riveting, prize-
winning play on incest, sexual oppression, and
intraracial caste prejudice.
In 1927, COUNTEECULLENselected four of
Horne’s poems for inclusion in Caroling Dusk: An
Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets.These included
“On Seeing Two Brown Boys in a Catholic
Church,” “To a Persistent Phantom,” “Letters
Found Near a Suicide,” and “Nigger: A Chant for
Children.” JAMES WELDON JOHNSON also in-
cluded Horne poems in his edited anthology THE
BOOK OFAMERICANNEGROPOETRY(1931).
Horne continued to write and publish after
the Harlem Renaissance ended. Poems appeared in
The Poetry of the Negro, 1746–1949 edited by
ARNA BONTEMPS and LANGSTON HUGHES.In
1964 Horne published Haverstraw,a collection of
poems. His poems also were included in antholo-
gies such as Charlemae Rollins and Tom O’Sulli-
van’s Chrismas Gif’: An Anthology of Christmas
Poems, Songs, and Stories(1963), a collection of
poems that featured numerous Harlem Renais-
sance era writers such as ZORANEALEHURSTON,
Langston Hughes, and EFFIELEENEWSOME.
Bibliography
Cullen, Countee. Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by
Negro Poets.New York: Harper & Brothers Publish-
ers, 1927.
Primeau, Ronald. “Frank Horne and the Second Eche-
lon Poets of the Harlem Renaissance.” In Remem-
bering the Harlem Renaissance,edited by Carry D.
Wintz, 371–391. New York: Garland, 1996.
House of Sham, The Willis Richardson
(1929)
A stirring one-act play by WILLISRICHARDSON
that exposes the fragility of domesticity and social
status. The House of Shamwas written in 1929 and
published in Richardson’s edited volume PLAYS
ANDPAGEANTS FROM THELIFE OF THENEGRO
(1930). The anthology, produced at the urging of
CARTERG. WOODSON, included twelve plays by
writers such as MAUDE CUNEY HARE,MAY
MILLER,JOHNMATHEUS, and EDWARDMCCOO.
All of the works were deemed suitable for study
and performance by high school students, and
none was written in dialect. Richardson’s play, one
of three that he included in the anthology, was
part of a substantial dramatic focus in Harlem Re-
naissance writing on American family life and the
demands of middle-class life.
The Cooper family home, the only set location
in the play, is a house of sham. Described as a
home that belongs to a “well-to-do colored family,”
it houses John Cooper, who is a realtor on the
verge of bankruptcy, his wife Mrs. Cooper, their
spoiled daughter Enid, and their practical niece
Joyce Adams. The three other characters are Dr.
Bill Holland, a physician and Enid’s love interest,
Hal Ford, an employee in Cooper’s real estate of-
fice, and Dorsey, a desperate man who believes
that Cooper has swindled him.
The two major story lines of the play both in-
volve bankruptcy—financial and moral. The
Cooper family has lived beyond its means. Doing
so has resulted in Enid’s preference for a rich hus-
band rather than a steady and honest companion.
Her mother quickly deflects Hal Ford’s interest in
her daughter and suggests that he is not worthy of
Enid’s attentions. In a move that recalls the classic
dysfunctional families who are often featured in
fairy tales, Mrs. Cooper persuades Ford that he is
an acceptable match for her niece Joyce. While
Joyce is somewhat dismayed by her aunt’s politics,
she emerges victorious at the end. It appears that
despite appearances to the contrary, Bill Holland is
not a wealthy physician. As the play closes, Enid’s
fiancé abandons her because her family is inca-
pable of providing for him also.
The second major plot line of the play re-
volves around Dorsey, a man intent on recovering
$500 from John Cooper. Sure that he has been
overcharged in the recent sale of his home, Dorsey
stakes out the Cooper house in order to confront
his broker. He threatens to kill Cooper and, when
he does find the man at home, barricades himselfHouse of Sham, The 249