reach for the patient woman of color. “You must sit
quietly without a chip,” she writes, “quiet; quiet.
Like Buddha—who brown like I am—sat entirely
at ease, entirely sure of himself; motionless and
knowing.” The essay ends with a celebration of
transcendence, the ability to absorb life energy
that enables the watchful woman to “gather, as it
passes, the essences, the overtones, the tints, the
shadows” and to “draw understanding to yourself.”
The essay reflects Bonner’s awareness of the vital
need for self-preservation in the face of daily hard-
ships and obstacles. She exhorts her readers to re-
sist bitterness and resentment, encouraging them
instead to cultivate their potential for liberating
self-assertion and race pride.
Bibliography
Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce Occomy Striklin. Frye Street &
Environs: The Collected Works of Marita Bonner.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.
“One Boy’s Story” Marita Bonner(1927)
A gripping story by MARITABONNER about a
mixed-race boy who inadvertently kills his white
father. Bonner, who published the work under a
pseudonym in the November 1927 issue of THE
CRISIS,explored the fraught family and social rela-
tions brought on by illegitimacy and infertility.
Louise Gage, an industrious African-American
seamstress, has an observant 10-year-old son
named Donald, who realizes that his mother is in-
volved in some sort of tense relationship with Dr.
Swyburne, the husband of one of her regular, and
noticeably sad, clients. Donald overhears snatches
of heated conversations between Louise and Dr.
Swyburne but never has the opportunity to con-
firm his identity as Swyburne’s son. When Mr. Fra-
zier, Louise Gage’s former suitor and a soldier,
reappears, the story becomes especially frantic as
Louise struggles to end her relationship with
Swyburne. When Donald sees his mother threat-
ened physically, he uses his slingshot to defend her.
Unfortunately, his shot is deadly, and his father
dies immediately. In a tragic turn evocative of the
Greek tragedies that Donald loves to read, the
young boy receives a dreadful wound to his tongue,
one that forces doctors to cut it out and leave him
mute. His mother, who understands that her son
has killed his father, is relieved that her son will
never be able to confess to the act. Dr. Somerset, a
man who also has suffered at the hands of Dr.
Swyburne, aids her.
Bonner’s story of a complicated childhood, in-
terracial alliances, and fate reflects her interest in
social realism and American domesticity. “One
Boy’s Story” is a measured narrative that explores
how women of color negotiate their sexuality and
domestic autonomy. Bonner’s use of the young boy
as narrator contributes to the compelling story and
underscores the awful loss of innocence and voice
that can befall individuals.Bibliography
Flynn, Joyce, and Joyce Occomy Striklin. Frye Street &
Environs: The Collected Works of Marita Bonner.
Boston: Beacon Press, 1987.135th Street Library SeeHARLEMBRANCH
OF THENEWYORKPUBLICLIBRARY.O’Neill, Eugene Gladstone(1888–1953)
A winner of the Nobel Prize in literature and a
four-time PULITZER PRIZE–winning playwright
whose substantial canon invigorated the American
dramatic world during the Harlem Renaissance
and included provocative dramas on race matters.
Born in NEWYORKCITY, he was the third son
of popular actor James O’Neill and his wife Ella
Quinlan O’Neill. He began college studies at
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY in 1906 and pursued
drama classes at HARVARDUNIVERSITYfrom 1914
through 1915. At Harvard, he was part of the “47
Workshop,” the well-known drama workshop of
George Pierce Baker. O’Neill married three times
and had three children, two sons and a daughter.
His son Eugene, Jr., born to O’Neill and his first
wife, Kathleen Jenkins, committed suicide when he
was 40 years old. With Agnes Bolton, O’Neill had
two children, but following the birth of his third
child and first daughter Oona, he divorced Bolton.
He later disinherited both of his children with
Bolton because he disapproved of their lifestyle
and marriage choices. In 1928 he abandoned his
family and married Carlotta Monterey, an actress
who lived with him and supported his career inO’Neill, Eugene Gladstone 403