Corps d’Afrique (a legendary Civil War regiment
from Louisiana) and a popular elected official
whose posts included the lieutenant governorship
of Louisiana and culminated in his election to the
U.S. Senate. Jean Toomer’s early life was compli-
cated by his father’s desertion in 1895, less than
one year after Jean was born. Toomer, who lived
with his mother and her parents for several years,
was not free to discuss his father and was encour-
aged to identify himself as a Pinchback. It was not
until he began writing seriously that Toomer re-
claimed his father’s surname. Toomer and his
mother moved to New Rochelle, New York, in
- Three years later, in 1909, Nina Pinchback
Toomer passed away unexpectedly due to complica-
tions from appendicitis and surgery. Toomer, now
effectively orphaned, returned to live with his ma-
ternal grandparents until his graduation from high
school.
After graduating from the acclaimed DUNBAR
HIGHSCHOOLin 1914, Toomer gained entry to
the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Biogra-
phers note that his college applications signal
Toomer’s efforts to protect and to advance himself.
In response to college forms that requested racial
information, Toomer, a light-skinned man, identi-
fied himself as white or provided no information at
all. He was motivated to do this in part because of
his genealogy that he believed included several
ethnicities, including Scotch, Welsh, German,
Dutch, and Spanish. He also refrained from self-
identifying as an African-American man in order
to ward off racial discrimination, isolation, or ha-
rassment. Toomer left Wisconsin after only one
semester and began a fretful period as an itinerant
student. During the next few years, he attended
and withdrew from several universities. These in-
cluded the UNIVERSITY OFCHICAGO, the College
of Physical Training in Chicago; the Massachusetts
College of Agriculture in Amherst, Massachusetts;
NEWYORKUNIVERSITY; and the City College of
New York.
Toomer had a series of intense love relation-
ships during his life that included tragic and
steadying marriages as well as soulful affairs with
close friends and well-known artists. One of
Toomer’s most memorable alliances involved
MARGARETNAUMBERG, the wife of his close friend
and fellow writer WALDOFRANK. The couple met
in 1923 when the Franks’ marriage was deteriorat-
ing. Naumberg was an enthusiastic believer in the
philosophies of the Russian mystic GEORGESGUR-
DJIEFFand shared a spiritual compatibility with
Toomer that fueled their affair.
Margery Latimer, a wealthy white writer whom
Toomer met in Wisconsin, became his first wife in- The couple had one child, named Margery
after her mother. Tragically, however, Margery La-
timer Toomer died shortly after the birth of their
daughter. A few years later, Toomer began one of
his most intense and legendary relationships when
he became involved with the gifted painter GEOR-
GIAO’KEEFFE. The two met in NEWYORKCITY,
where they both were part of the same vibrant in-
tellectual circle that included Waldo Frank, SHER-
WOODANDERSON,LEWISMUMFORD, and HART
CRANE. Toomer and O’Keeffe shared deep spiritual
interests and became lovers in late 1933, following
the death of Toomer’s first wife. Toomer married
Marjorie Content, one of O’Keeffe’s close friends,
in the fall of 1934. O’Keeffe weathered the loss of
524 Toomer, Nathan Eugene (Jean)
Jean Toomer, author. White Studio, New York (Yale
Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library)