Brain Sweat John Charles Brownell(1934)
A play by JOHNBROWNELLabout a man who de-
votes two years of his life to perfect a money-
making scheme. The play was staged at the
Longacre Theatre in New York City in March
- Robert Ober staged the production; Vail
Studios provided the setting; and James Mont-
gomery and Henry Stern produced it.
The three-act play with a cast of 10 and a
group of jubilee singers was billed as a “comedy of
Negro life.” It revolves around Henry Washing-
ton, a placid philosopher who has sworn off physi-
cal activity and labor in order to create a
powerful intellectual project. Washington’s wife,
Rose, has become the primary wage earner and
taken in laundry while her husband has immersed
himself in thinking. NEW YORKTIMES drama
critic Brooks Atkinson suggested to his readers
that “no one believes in Henry’s mysterious pro-
ject for making money by the use of his brain”
(NYT,5 April 1934, 24). Yet, Henry ultimately
succeeds and proves that “brain sweat” is indeed
worthwhile.
When it opened in New York, Brain Sweatfea-
tured the talented and beloved Carrie McClendon
in the role of Rose Washington. Atkinson praised
her for performing “with all the delicacy of a sensi-
tive artist” and also remarked that she “has a pres-
ence and a grace that are wholly admirable.” Of
her co-star, Billy Higgins, who played the role of
Henry Washington, “the intellectual giant of the
family,” Atkinson declared that he was “just plump
and pompous enough to be a comedian.” He noted
also that “[w]hen the great project ripens in the
last act Mr. Higgins’s exultant grin, which mea-
sures several miles in linear distance, and his tri-
umphant rocking and his delusions of sepia
grandeur are blissfully ludicrous” (NYT,5 April
1934, 24).
Promotional information about the upcoming
New York City production called attention to the
fact that it had “a Negro cast” (NYT,17 February
1934, 20). When it opened, audiences were pre-
sented with “shilly-shallying with a humorous no-
tion for two acts” before the comedy
“brighten[ed] into an amusing play at the end,
and dismisse[d] in a cheerful frame of mind”
(NYT,5 April 1934, 24).
Bibliography
Atkinson, Brooks. “On the Advantages of Using the
Mind—‘Brain Sweat’ With a Negro Cast.” New
York Times,5 April 1934, 24.
“‘Brain Sweat’ Due Here on Wednesday.” New York
Times,29 March 1934, 27.
“Theatrical Notes.” New York Times,17 February 1934,
20.Braithwaite, William Stanley Beaumont
(1878–1962)
A Bostonian who became a prominent editor, liter-
ary critic, and publisher. Born to mixed-race par-
ents, Braithwaite was forced to end his education
prematurely when his father died. His love of liter-
ature developed during one of his jobs as a typeset-
ter for a publishing firm in the city. He published
two volumes of poetry before he was 30 years of
age, Lyrics of Life and Love(1904) and The House of
Falling Leaves, with Other Poems(1908). From 1913
through 1929, he selected the items for inclusion
in and published the ANTHOLOGY OFMAGAZINE
VERSEand the Yearbook of American Poetry.Some
writers lobbied him heavily because inclusion in
the yearly books enhanced their reputations. In
1918 his literary achievements contributed to his
selection for an NAACP SPINGARNMEDALand an
honorary degree from ATLANTAUNIVERSITY.
Braithwaite, whom historian David Levering
Lewis identifies as “the dean of African American
belles-lettres,” was quite outspoken about his dis-
taste for aggressive race poetry. He castigated
CLAUDEMCKAY, for example, for his celebrated
poem “If We Must Die,” a piece written in re-
sponse to the bloody race riots during the summer
of 1919. Like JEANTOOMER, Braithwaite advo-
cated for poetry that reflected the talents, rather
than the race, of a writer. When CANEappeared in
1923, Braithwaite hailed Toomer, its author and a
man who fretted in the face of racial objectifica-
tion, as “a bright morning star of a new day of the
Race in literature.”
Braithwaite’s anthologies, notably devoid of
works that were polemical or political, reflected his
studied effort to situate African-American poets in
a larger context of American poetry. His senti-
ments ran counter to those expressed by JAMES
WELDON JOHNSON and others, however; theBraithwaite, William Stanley Beaumont 61