only collection of short fiction in 1926. Six ap-
peared in Opportunity,and in addition to his liter-
ary debut in The New Republiche published one
short story, “MISS KENNY’S MARRIAGE,” in the
September 1923 issue of Smart Set.Walrond also
published four works of nonfiction from 1923
through 1925 in the journals Current History, The
Messenger, and the Independent. These demon-
strated his study of the African-American political
scene, controversial figures such as BOOKERT.
WASHINGTONand Marcus Garvey, and major so-
cioeconomic realities such as African-American
migration from the South.
TROPICDEATH,Walrond’s first collection of
short fiction, appeared in 1926 to much acclaim.
The 10 short stories ranged in subjects and in-
cluded portraits of young immigrant families, Pana-
manian life, and tragic conflicts that resulted in
murder. His work was anthologized in pioneering
collections of African-American work. His story
“The Palm Porch” was included in ALAINLOCKE’s
THE NEW NEGRO (1925) alongside works by
COUNTEE CULLEN,W. E. B. DUBOIS,WALTER
WHITE,and ZORANEALEHURSTON. Additional
works appeared in The American Caravan(1927),
edited by VANWYCKBROOKS. Walrond’s literary
output began to wane after the publication of
Tropic Death,but he had a number of promising
projects in the works. In 1927 and 1928 he was
awarded three significant fellowships. He won a
Harmon Award in Literature, a ZONAGALEschol-
arship that enabled him to study at the University
of Wisconsin, and a GUGGENHEIMFELLOWSHIP.
Walrond left the United States in the fall of 1928,
ostensibly to begin his Guggenheim research, but
he was never to return to America.
When he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow-
ship in 1928, Walrond was planning to complete a
study of the Panama Canal and publish it with the
firm of BONI&LIVERIGHT, the company that had
published Tropic Death.The New York Times,which
published a brief notice about his $2,500 award,
called attention to his “plans to travel in the West
Indies gathering material for books” and described
him as one who “had considerable success as a free
lance writer in New York City” (NYT,29 April
1928). The book for which Walrond hoped to
begin research during his Guggenheim year was
tentatively entitled The Big Ditch.It was the final
project that Walrond was working on when he
died in 1966. Walrond spent time in Panama and
traveled widely throughout the West Indies as a
Guggenheim fellow.
In the summer of 1929 he relocated to Paris
and was there until 1932. During his time there,
he met up with Countee Cullen, who, like many
African Americans, was enjoying the rich culture
and less racially charged environment of FRANCE,
and the two eventually shared an apartment. Later
that year, Zora Neale Hurston entertained the no-
tion of accompanying her friend DOROTHYWEST
to Paris. In a letter to LANGSTON HUGHES,
Hurston noted that West’s rationale was based on
the growing list of intriguing writers who had set-
tled in Paris. “She wants me to come to Paris with
her,” wrote Hurston, “Says Eric and Countee and
A[u]gusta Savage are there and so she and I ought
to be there” (Kaplan, 158). The year before, how-
ever, Hurston had been quick to express to
Hughes her disdain for what appeared to be a
growing trend among her peers to leave America
for Europe. “What, I ask with my feet turned out,
are Countee and Eric going aboard to study?” she
asked Hughes. “In the words of H—Hannibal, ’O
Carthage, I see thy fate!... A negro goes to
Whiteland to learn his trade! Ha!” (Kaplan, 116).
Walrond eventually moved on from France to
England. In London he reconnected with Marcus
Garvey, the enigmatic figure with whom he had
worked briefly while in the United States. He also
resumed his writing, publishing in both American
and British journals. Essays and short stories ap-
peared from the 1930s through the 1950s in jour-
nals such as Roundway Review, The Spectator,the
London Evening Standard, The Crisis, Arena,and
the People’s Voice,a magazine that Harlem-based
minister and politician Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.,
edited during the 1940s. In 1958 he coedited with
Rosey Pool an anthology entitled Black and Un-
known Bards: A Collection of Negro Poetry.Accord-
ing to Louis Parascandola, editor of the first
comprehensive collection of Walrond’s writings,
Walrond was “driven to excel as a writer.” Yet,
speculates Parascandola, Walrond’s creativity may
have been dampened by the oppressive racism that
was an entrenched part of the British and Ameri-
can worlds in which he moved. Walrond took seri-
ously the plight and challenges of West Indian andWalrond, Eric Derwent 551