stupidities and abnormalities of mankind.” The
statement offers a final emphasis on awareness but
is tempered by the references to frustrating limita-
tions of others.
Essentials signaled Toomer’s transition away
from the ordered world of institutional publishing.
In 1931 he collaborated with fellow Gurdjieff ad-
herents to found a press that would “encourage,
secure, publish, and distribute quality literature
dealing with all phases of spiritual experience...
essential experience, experience concerned with
and leading to the full balanced growth and devel-
opment of human beings.” Essentialswas the first
book produced by the Lakeside Press based in
CHICAGO. Unfortunately, it also was the only work
to appear under the imprint.
Toomer, whose resistance of racial categoriza-
tion was well documented, refused to have Essen-
tialsincorporated into the collection of African-
American holdings at the Schomburg Library in
New York. This solitary work from the Lakeside
Press continued to reflect its author’s increased
isolation from the mainstream African-American
literary community.
Bibliography
Benson, Brian, and Mabel Dillard. Jean Toomer.Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1980.
Toomer, Jean. Essentials.1931; reprint, Rudolph Byrd,
ed. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.
“Eternal Quest, The” Anita Scott Coleman
(1931)
A short story by ANITASCOTTCOLEMANabout
the power of faith and the awesome inspiration
that ordinary folk can deliver to those who are at-
tentive and willing to learn from their examples.
Published in the August 1931 issue of OPPOR-
TUNITY,the story begins with the tragic tale of Dr.
Evan Given, a London surgeon who suffers the
awful loss of his wife and then, 17 years later, the
death of their only child. In response to the “bur-
densome grief” that overcomes him and because he
is a man who believes in life after death, he ends his
medical practice and devotes himself to the “study
of science—the science of faith.” He devotes him-
self to solving questions such as “What is this thing
faith... Why does it suffice for some... Why is it
insufficient for others... [and] Why believing as I
do that God is the giver, and therefore has a Divine
right to take when and as He wills, am I rebellious
because He has bereft me of mine?” One day, while
he is traveling in America, he is invited to consult
on a medical case that has defied physicians. He ar-
rives at the hospital to find a patient identified only
as “No. 60 in ward 400.” The man is a giant, “easily
six foot ten” and the “span of his shoulders came
near to over-taxing the width of the white iron cot”
on which he lies. He is restrained because of his
delirium “but yet the strong thongs were proving in-
adequate, the motions of the man lifted the cot
until it tossed about like a frail craft on a windy sea.”
Given announces that nothing medical can be done
for the man who continues to repeat the word mom-
mer.He tells the nursing staff to locate and to bring
in the patient’s mother so that he can die in peace.
The woman, whom the narrator describes as “a
small woman, a tightly shriveled hard little person,
not unlike a black walnut” consults with Given for a
moment and then proceeds to tend to her son. She
talks to him, instructs him to cease making trouble
for the staff, and then instructs the nurses to release
her child from the restraints so that he can “die
free.” Within moments, the man slips into “his final
sleep, peacefully as a babe.” Given watches, awe-
struck by the woman’s ability to “meet death” and to
give thanks to God that her son has been released
from his pain. The story ends as the doctor marvels
at the woman’s belief in God’s ability to sustain her
and at the poise that she displays in the face of im-
minent financial hardship now that her son is no
longer able to provide for her.
The story’s title suggests, in part, that for some
the effort to understand or to locate faith is in fact
an eternal quest. The uncomplicated, unwavering
faith of the devoted mother in “The Eternal
Quest” provides readers with an exemplary tale of
African-American family bonds and empowering
spiritual strength that may not be easily repro-
duced or captured by others.Ethiopian Art Players
A theater group founded in CHICAGOin 1923 by
Raymond O’Neil and Mrs. SHERWOODANDERSON
during a period that saw a number of experimental
theater troupes and companies established in cities144 “Eternal Quest, The”