fused, the paperwork for the sale had been pro-
cessed. The new owner, Bennett Cerf, renamed the
Modern Library division and called it Random
House. During the early 1930s Liveright struggled
to regain financial stability. Expenses and debts in-
curred by his divorces ruined him, and he filed for
bankruptcy in 1931.
Liveright died from complications of pneumo-
nia and emphysema in New York City in Septem-
ber 1933. He was 46 years old.
Bibliography
Dardis, Tom. Firebrand: The Life of Horace Liveright.New
York: Random House, 1995.
Gilmer, Walker. Horace Liveright, Publisher of the Twenties.
New York: D. Lewis, 1970.
Livingston, Myrtle Athleen Smith
(1902–1973)
A graduate of HOWARDUNIVERSITYand a profes-
sor at LINCOLNUNIVERSITY, Livingston emerged
briefly as an aspiring playwright during the Harlem
Renaissance.
The daughter of Samuel and Lula Hall Smith,
Myrtle Livingston was born in Holly Grove,
Arkansas. Following schooling in Denver, Col-
orado, Smith pursued pharmaceutical studies at
Howard University and, while there, also joined
the medical sorority Rho Psi Phi. After two years in
WASHINGTON, D.C., she enrolled in the Colorado
Teachers College in Greeley, Colorado. Although
she did not graduate until 1926, she received a
teacher’s certificate and began teaching in Denver.
Smith married William McKinley Livingston, a
physician, in June 1924.
In 1925, Livingston won third place and a ten-
dollar prize in the AMYSPINGARNliterary competi-
tion for her play FORUNBORNCHILDREN.The work,
which was published in the July 1926 issue of THE
CRISIS,revolves around a heart-wrenching interracial
love affair and concludes as the protagonist faces a
mob that is determined to lynch him. The play was
not Livingston’s work. She saw her works performed
by sororities and fraternities. Details about these per-
formances and texts, however, are limited.
Livingston retired to Hawaii, where she lived
with her sister Ella, also a retired teacher. Liv-
ingston died in July 1973.
Locke, Alain(Arthur Le Roy Locke,
Alain Leroy Locke)(1886–1954)
One of America’s foremost scholars and an influ-
ential professor and writer whose passion for liter-
ary excellence and intellectual debate enriched the
Harlem Renaissance. Proclaimed as the “dean” of
the Harlem Renaissance, he exerted a considerable
amount of influence over the movement, and his
overtures, endorsements, support, and criticisms
during the period affected both positively and neg-
atively the careers of many individuals.
Born Arthur Locke, he was the son of
schoolteachers. His father was Pliney Ishmael
Locke, a mathematics instructor and Philadelphia
court clerk. His mother, Mary Hawkins Locke, was
a schoolteacher who was employed in the segregatedLocke, Alain 317A 1926 portrait of Alain Locke with a dedication to
James Weldon Johnson “in esteem and cordial regard”
(Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library)