West’s statement “If you love black folks, you hate
white supremacy. If you love human beings, you
love justice. If you love the life of the mind, then
you hate all forms of dogmatism and parochial-
ism” exemplifies his passionate drive to inspire
communities to confront and solve divisive issues.
West has aligned himself with dissident elements
rather than the usual forms of academic activism,
being unafraid to dispute publicly Harvard’s com-
mitment to diversity and the investigation into the
validity of his scholarship.
West has been awarded the American Book
Award. He worked on Al Sharpton’s presidential
exploratory committee and President Bill Clinton’s
National Conversation on Race. More than 20
honorary degrees have been conferred on West.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Cornel West.” This Far by Faith. PBS. 2003. Available
online. URL: http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/
witnesses/cornel_west.html. Accessed October 26,
2006.
Engelhardt, Elizabeth Sanders Delwiche. “Cornel
West.” In The Oxford Companion to African Amer-
ican Literature, edited by William L. Andrews, et
al., 765–766. New York: Oxford University Press,
1997.
Lott, Eric. “Cornel West in the Hour of Chaos: Cul-
ture and Politics in Race Matters.” Social Text 40
(Autumn 1994): 39–50.
West, Cornel. Race Matters. Boston: Beacon Press,
1993.
“Who Is Cornel West?” CNN.com January 10, 2002.
Available online. URL: http://www.archives.cnn.
com/2002/fyi/teachers.ednews/01/10/west.har-
vard.ap/. Accessed October 26, 2006.
Kim Hai Pearson
Brian Jennings
West, Dorothy (1907–1998)
A novelist, short fiction writer, journal founder,
publisher, editor, and columnist, Dorothy West
was the youngest and the longest-surviving mem-
ber of the HARLEM RENAISSANCE. She was born an
only child on June 2, 1907, in Boston, Massachu-
setts, to Isaac Christopher West, an entrepreneur,
eventually known as the “Black Banana King”
of Boston, and Rachel Pease Benson, a native of
Camden, South Carolina. A precocious child,
West, at age four, attended the Farragut School and
completed her elementary education at the Martin
School Mission Hill District in Boston. In 1923 she
graduated from the Girls’ Latin School and studied
journalism and philosophy at Boston University
and Columbia University.
West began her literary career at age seven with
her first story, “Promise and Fulfillment,” pub-
lished in the Boston Globe. After her 18th birthday,
she wrote several short stories over the next couple
of decades for OPPORTUNITY, The MESSENGER, and
The Saturday Evening Quill, including the award-
winning “The Typewriter” (1926), which launched
her, along with ZORA NEALE HURSTON, as a serious
and talented writer; “Hannah Byde” (1926); “An
Unimportant Man” (1928); “Prologue to a Life”
(1929); “The Black Dress” (1934); and “Mammy”
(1940). What most critics note about these sto-
ries is the Dostoyevskian influence that dominates
these works, especially in one of West’s best pieces
of fiction, “The Typewriter,” which portrays a frus-
trated, spiritually and economically wasted black
father named J. L. Jones, who uses his daughter’s
typewriting lessons to gain a modicum of personal
worth. Each time he pretends to be her boss and
dictates a letter, he imagines himself the success-
ful businessman that a racist culture prevents him
from becoming. According to critic Deborah Mc-
Dowell, West’s short stories “are the most perfect
literary form” (281).
For several decades, West was a consistent and
spirited contributor to the black American literary
canon. She was founder during the 1930s of two
important magazines: Challenge (1934) and New
Challenge (1937), in which she sought to crystal-
lize the dominant black literary attitudes of the day
and to nurture new, post-Renaissance literary tal-
ent. Featured were the works of West’s colleagues
and friends, such as LANGSTON HUGHES, CLAUDE
MCKAY, ZORA NEALE HURSTON, COUNTEE CULLEN,
ARNA BONTEMPS, WALLACE THURMAN, FRANK YERBY,
RICHARD WRIGHT, MARGARET WALKER, and RALPH
ELLISON. After the magazine folded, West workedWest, Dorothy 541