modern in her ideas, in her knowledge of books
and the theater, of Harlem, and of everything then
taking place in the world” (Berry, 88). It was
Mason who financed Langston Hughes so that he
could publish his first novel, NOT WITHOUT
LAUGHTER.She protested his inclinations to de-
velop works of a political nature and advocated a
much more narrow and insular focus on essential-
ist racial ideas and images. Mason dismissed poten-
tial collaborations between Hughes and Hurston,
especially their plans to establish a formal theater
program and their ill-fated work on MULEBONE.
Hughes’s relationship with Mason ended in De-
cember 1930. He proposed that they remain friends
but asked for an end to her financial support and
the restraints on his creative development. Mason
predicted that he would fail without her. Hughes
grappled with serious illness immediately after their
tempestuous break. In 1931 the Harmon Literary
Award winner sent the gold medals that he had re-
ceived to Mason in an effort to smooth over the
abrupt end to their relationship.
Hurston, like Hughes, chafing under the ob-
sessive control and scripting of their creative ge-
nius, eventually broke ties with Mason. Mason
hired Louise Thompson, former wife of WALLACE
THURMAN, to work as secretary for Langston
Hughes.
Mason believed in the power of the primitive
and demanded that her protégés provide her with
material that reinforced her views. According to
Bruce Kellner, Mason dedicated more than
$75,000 to the professional development of her
artistic charges.
Mason died at Manhattan’s New York Hospi-
tal in April 1946. She was actually a patient in res-
idence, admitted in 1933 when she suffered a
broken hip. Her rooms there were opulent, and she
essentially maintained a private hospital residence
for herself. Mason’s death certificate listed her oc-
cupation simply as “housewife.” Despite her promi-
nence and influential role in New York society,
THENEWYORKTIMESrefrained from publishing
an obituary.
Bibliography
Bernard, Emily. Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of
Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten.New York:
Knopf, 2001.
Berry, Faith, ed. Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond
Harlem.Westport, Conn.: Lawrence Hill & Com-
pany, 1983.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too,
Sing America.Vol. 1: 1902–1941.New York: Oxford
University Press, 1986.Massachusetts
The New England state that was home to several
leading members of the Harlem Renaissance. In
BOSTON, as in PHILADELPHIA, there were active
literary circles that produced important Harlem
Renaissance–era publications.
Massachusetts natives and residents who went
on to enjoy successful careers in the arts included
MARITA BONNER,WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITH-
WAITE,ANGELINAGRIMKÉ, Florence Marion Hen-
derson, HELENEJOHNSON, and DOROTHYWEST.
West later retired to Martha’s Vineyard after a suc-
cessful career in New York City during the heyday
of the Harlem Renaissance.
The SATURDAYEVENINGQUILLCLUBwas the
most active and well-known literary circle during
the Harlem Renaissance. Its members included
EDYTHEMAEGORDON,EUGENEGORDON, and
FLORIDARUFFINRIDLEY. Writers such as Dorothy
West, Helene Johnson, and Florence Harmon pub-
lished in the SATURDAYEVENINGQUILL,the orga-
nization’s publication.
HARVARDUNIVERSITY, located in Cambridge,
graduated some of the most accomplished men of
the period. FREDERICKALLENLEWISand ALAIN
LOCKE were undergraduates who excelled and
demonstrated the intellectual strength of the race
that had been long thwarted by American segrega-
tion and exclusionary political and educational
policies. Locke, a PHIBETAKAPPAand magna cum
laude graduate in 1907 became the first African
American selected for a RHODESSCHOLARSHIP.In
1896 W. E. B. DUBOISbecame the first African
American to earn a Ph.D. at Harvard, and Charles
Hamilton Houston, a student at the law school,
became the first African-American editor of the
Harvard Law Review.
RADCLIFFECOLLEGE, the sister school of Har-
vard, was the alma mater of MARITABONNER,Massachusetts 335