her relationship with Toomer and maintained con-
tact with Toomer and Content once they were
married.
Toomer and Content settled in Doylestown,
Pennsylvania, with Toomer’s daughter, Margery.
The couple, who named their rural farm home Mill
House, lived there together until Toomer’s death
in 1967. Mill House, while a respite from the
world, also was the site of a small, private press
that produced Toomer’s later publication efforts.
Toomer’s introduction to the Harlem Renais-
sance and his subsequent immersion in the literary
life began when he moved to New York City in
- It was there that he became part of an
avant-garde literary and arts circle that included
VANWYCKBROOKS,WITTERBYNNER, Georgia
O’Keeffe, and Waldo Frank. Toomer’s major liter-
ary accomplishments, however, did not come eas-
ily. In 1921 he began a formative journey through
the South that ultimately involved a short-term
position as head teacher in a small Sparta, Geor-
gia, school. Within months of returning to New
York, Toomer began writing CANE (1923), the
volume that would catapult him into the literary
limelight.
Toomer’s first significant publication appeared
in the spring of 1922, when “Song of the Son,” a
piece that he would include in Cane, appeared in
THECRISIS.Subsequently, excerpts from the col-
lection appeared in the LIBERATOR. Additional
works included two plays. The first, BALO,was a
one-act folk play that was later staged by the im-
pressive college drama troupe the Howard Univer-
sity Players. Baloalso was included in the valuable
anthology PLAYS OFNEGROLIFEedited by ALAIN
LOCKE and MONTGOMERY GREGORY. Toomer’s
second play, the unpublished Natalie Mann, fo-
cused on African-American life in Washington,
D.C. The play, which was not staged during
Toomer’s lifetime, was published for the first time
in 1980. During the mid-1920s, Toomer also pub-
lished several short stories in a variety of venues
including The Dialand anthologies such as The
New American Caravan,edited by Alfred Kreym-
borg. Toomer’s few published poems appeared in
The Crisisin 1922 and 1932, in Pagany,and again
in the New American Caravananthology. Toomer
also produced several unpublished manuscripts
during his career. These include the novels The
Gallonwerps,written in 1927; Transatlantic,com-
pleted in 1929; and Caromb,written in 1932.
Toomer eventually withdrew from the New
York literary world in which he enjoyed critical ac-
claim and prestige. Enamored by the teachings of
Gurdjieff, he became a committed disciple and
leader in the spiritualist movement. For some 10
years, he traveled extensively, advocating Gurdji-
eff’s principles and teachings. In 1934, however,
troubled by problematic financial arrangements
within the movement, he withdrew.
Toomer, who suffered from several ailments,
including arthritis and arteriosclerosis, died in
March 1967.Bibliography
Byrd, Rudolph P. Jean Toomer’s Years with Gurdjieff: Por-
trait of an Artist, 1923–1936.Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1990.
Jones, Robert B., and Margery Toomer Latimer, eds. The
Collected Poems of Jean Toomer.Chapel Hill: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Kerman, Cynthia Earl, and Richard Eldridge. The Lives
of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness.Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
McKay, Nellie Y. Jean Toomer, Artist: A Study of His Liter-
ary Life and Work, 1894-1936.Chapel Hill: Univer-
sity of North Carolina Press, 1984.
O’Daniel, Therman B., ed. Jean Toomer: A Critical Evalu-
ation.Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press,
1988.
Turner, Darwin T., ed. The Wayward and the Seeking: A
Collection of Writings by Jean Toomer.Washington,
D.C.: Howard University Press, 1982.Torrence, Ridgely(1874–1950)
A white American playwright who invigorated the
nation’s dramatic tradition during the early years
of the Harlem Renaissance and is credited with
developing the earliest BROADWAY plays by a
white American writer to feature African-Ameri-
can characters in absorbing, non-stereotypical
roles. Torrence was active in publishing and liter-
ary circles, worked as an editor at several well-
known periodicals, and produced a variety of
literary works ranging from poems to plays during
his lengthy career.Torrence, Ridgely 525