Rawlings struggled with her desire to develop a
friendship with the talented writer and the un-
yielding racism that frowned on such social inter-
action and equality. The two writers corresponded
in the years that followed, and Rawlings facilitated
Hurston’s introduction to editors at the publishing
house of Charles Scribner’s Sons, a meeting that
ultimately resulted in a book contract and advance
for Seraph on the Suwanee.
Bibliography
Bellman, Samuel. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.New York:
Twayne Publishers, 1974.
Boyd, Valerie. Wrapped in Rainbows: The Life of Zora
Neale Hurston.New York: Scribner, 2003.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.
Silverthorne, Elizabeth. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: So-
journer at Cross Creek.Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook,
1988.
“Red Cape, The”Gertrude Schalk(1929)
A compelling short story by GERTRUDESCHALK
about the frailty of love and the awful effects of
mistrust and impatience. Published in the 1929 an-
nual issue of the SATURDAYEVENINGQUILL,“The
Red Cape” features Peter, a newlywed sailor who
has been away from his bride for six months. He
and his wife had only three months together before
he joined a crew and mission that took him to sea.
Peter is anxious to see his wife and his honorable,
romantic feelings about her are in sharp contrast to
the more callous sentiments of his shipmates who
plan to get drunk and head to the brothel closest
to the pier. When he alights, Peter sees a woman
swathed in a red cape running into town. Unfortu-
nately, he does not realize that she is running past
the cemetery near the ocean and thinks instead
that she is hurrying away from the brothel. Assum-
ing the worst, he hurries home and in a dreadfully
unfortunate conversation filled with inferences
rather than direct statements, accuses her of being
unfaithful. She thinks that someone has told him
about the tragedy that has befallen him and, in her
distress, fails to realize that he is talking about her
alleged infidelity.
Peter storms out of the house and secures a
two-year tour on a ship called the Beacon.Mean-
while, his wife, whom a motherly neighbor is un-
able to console, goes back to the Baptist cemetery
on Sea Street. There, she “stared with agonized
eyes at the head-stone. Peter Jr. Born April 15,- Died April 30, 1928.” The story ends as the
young devastated wife falls “violently... on the
damp grave and her red cape fluttered defiantly to
the breeze.” The story’s setting, intense emotional
plot, and vivid imagery made it one of the most
riveting works in the Saturday Evening Quill.
Redding, Jay Saunders(1906–1988)
The first African American to join the faculty at
an Ivy League College, Redding was a gifted
teacher, editor, and writer. Born in Wilmington,
Delaware, he was the third of seven children of
Lewis and Mary Ann Holmes Redding, a
HOWARD UNIVERSITY graduate and former
schoolteacher. His father, also a Howard Univer-
sity graduate, was a postal employee and secretary
of the local chapter of the NATIONALASSOCIA-
TION FOR THEADVANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEO-
PLE. Lewis Redding was an industrious man
committed to racial uplift, and it was he who es-
tablished the first YOUNGMEN’SCHRISTIANAS-
SOCIATIONfor African Americans in Wilmington.
In 1929 he married Esther James, a teacher from
Newark, Delaware, and the couple had two sons,
Conway and Lewis.
Redding began his college studies at LINCOLN
UNIVERSITY, the alma mater of WARINGCUNEY,
LANGSTONHUGHES,KWAMENKRUMAH, the first
president of Ghana, and Thurgood Marshall, the
first African-American Supreme Court justice. He
went on to complete his undergraduate degree at
BROWN UNIVERSITY, the alma mater of his
brother Louis, who went on to become the first
African-American lawyer in the state of Delaware.
After earning a bachelor of philosophy, Redding
completed a master’s degree from Brown in 1926
that also earned him membership in PHIBETA
KAPPA. He started teaching at MOREHOUSECOL-
LEGEin Atlanta, Georgia, in 1926 following his
graduation from Brown. Subsequent teaching
posts included as department head at Southern
University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and at
State Teachers College in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina, and an endowed chair as the JamesRedding, Jay Saunders 443