communities. She herself pursued fieldwork and
lived with members of the Plains Indian tribes dur-
ing the early 1900s.
During the Harlem Renaissance, Mason se-
lected several promising writers to be her protégés.
She was interested in primitivism, a perspective
that suggested savagery and untamed natures were
the best antidote to white notions of civilization.
RICHMOND BARTHÉ, Miguel Covarrubias,
LANGSTONHUGHES,ZORANEALEHURSTON, Hall
Johnson, ALAINLOCKE, and LOUISETHOMPSON
all benefited from financial support from the
woman whom they were expected to address as
“Godmother.” She, in turn, referred to the artists
as her “children.” Mason was an exacting patron
who demanded absolute intellectual obedience
and anonymity. Other artists, such as PAULROBE-
SON, declined Mason’s offers of patronage and
support.
Alain Locke, who frequented Mason’s Park
Avenue residence and often brought emerging
artists to call, introduced Mason to Zora Neale
Hurston. Locke, who publicly endorsed the philos-
ophy that African-American artists should not be
constrained to examine only racial matters, sup-
pressed such ideas in Mason’s presence. He saw the
opportunity to fund emerging artists and thus em-
phasized the value of articulating African themes
in contemporary works.
Hurston and Mason met first in September- Mason allocated generous amounts to fund
Hurston’s research. In exchange for the support,
however, she forbade the COLUMBIAUNIVERSITY–
trained anthropologist to publish any of her find-
ings. Mason established a formal contract with
Hurston, one that provided the writer with a $200
monthly stipend, a car, and a film camera and
guaranteed Mason total control over all acquired
materials that Hurston gathered in the course of
her travels.
Hurston provided her patron with detailed
sets of information about her anthropological re-
search and wrote to her frequently about profes-
sional and personal matters. Hurston frequently
wrote delightful notes in which she greeted Mason
as “Darling my God-Flower” (Kaplan, 187) and
signed off with phrases in which she pledged “All
my love and gratitude and Devotion” (Kaplan,
263).
Mason maintained a tight control over
Hurston’s collaborations with scholars such as her
former Columbia professor FRANZ BOAS and
forced Hurston to develop research plans in secret.
Ultimately, Hurston’s intellectual independence
hastened an end to the relationship.
Mason was the patron of Langston Hughes for
some three and one-half years. According to
Hughes biographer Faith Berry, the gifted but
perennially financially strapped writer thought that
Mason was “one of the most delightful women [he]
had ever met, witty and charming, kind and sym-
pathetic, very old and white-haired but amazingly
334 Mason, Charlotte Louise Osgood
Charlotte Osgood Mason, the legendary and exacting
patron of Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes
(Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library)