facility that embraced the principles of the
Montessori system. She was respected for her work
with art and her use of art in therapeutic practice.
Naumberg attended Vassar College and BARNARD
COLLEGE before beginning graduate studies at
COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY. She later pursued studies
in psychology and other subjects at Oxford Uni-
versity and with scholars such as Maria Montessori
in Italy.
It was Naumberg who introduced two of her
most influential former professors to each other.
Through her, Frederick Matthias Alexander, elocu-
tionist and inventor of the Alexander Technique,
came to know John Dewey, the well-known Amer-
ican philosopher and Naumberg’s former professor
at Columbia University. The two men enjoyed a
fruitful professional relationship.
In 1914, Naumberg established the Chil-
dren’s School, an institution in NEWYORKCITY
that later became known as the Walden School.
She encouraged her teachers to have regular ses-
sions with a psychoanalyst, believing that therapy
would have a positive impact on their perfor-
mance in the classroom. The Walden School fac-
ulty also included Florence Cane, her sister and
an art educator.
Naumberg divorced Waldo Frank in 1923,
shortly after the couple had a son together. She
later became the lover of JEANTOOMER, one of
Frank’s colleagues and a writer with whom he
shared his work. Naumberg’s affair with Toomer
ended in 1926.
Naumberg was a dynamic and versatile figure
who had ties to Harlem Renaissance literary cir-
cles in and beyond New York City. She also partic-
ipated in the movement advanced by GEORGES
IVANOVITCHGURDJIEFFand strengthened her ties
to Jean Toomer as they explored the psychological
and spiritual benefits of Gurdjieff’s philosophies
together. Naumberg also was a recognized writer
who published poems and plays, as well as many
academic and professional papers on education
and art. She returned to Columbia University as a
professor and taught there until she was well into
her 80s.
Bibliography
Carter, Paul. Waldo Frank.New York: Twayne Publishers,
1967.
Kerman, Cynthia Earl, and Richard Eldridge. The Lives
of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness.Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
Trachtenberg, Alan, ed. Memoirs of Waldo Frank.
Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1973.Naxos
The fictional campus in QUICKSAND(1927), the
first novel of NELLALARSEN. The school, whose
name can be rearranged to read “Saxon,” repre-
sented a searing critique of the highly regimented
and stifling environment of an overly racially con-
scious environment.
Larsen modeled her fictional school on
TUSKEGEEINSTITUTE, the industrial education fa-
cility that BOOKERT. WASHINGTON founded in
Alabama. She had worked there as a head nurse
from 1915 through 1916.Bibliography
Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem
Renaissance: A Woman’s Life Unveiled.Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand,edited with an introduction
and notes by Thadious M. Davis. New York: Pen-
guin Books, 2002.Near CalvaryWillis Richardson(ca. 1930-34)
A play by WILLISRICHARDSON, the first African-
American playwright whose work was produced on
BROADWAYand the first to edit a collection of
African-American plays for children.
Near Calvarywas one of five Richardson plays
that were included in NEGROHISTORY INTHIRTEEN
PLAYS, the 1935 anthology that Richardson
coedited with playwright MAYMILLERSULLIVAN.
The work appeared alongside three works by May
Miller and dramas by RANDOLPHEDMONDS,GEOR-
GIADOUGLASJOHNSON, and Helen Webb Harris.Bibliography
Gray, Christine Rauchfuss. Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pi-
oneer of African-American Drama.Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1999.
Richardson, Willis, and May Miller. Negro History in
Thirteen Plays.New York: Associated Publishers,
1935.368 Naxos