oped her love of drama and pursued it with great
success. In 1927 she was cast in the original perfor-
mance of DUBOSE HEYWARD’s PORGYand was
part of the cast that traveled to England for a
three-month tour. West later joined some 20
African Americans for an eventful but not entirely
successful venture to Russia to participate in
BLACK AND WHITE, a film based on African-
American experiences in the United States. The
participants included Henry Lee Moon, LOUISE
THOMPSON, Theodore Poston, LANGSTON
HUGHES, and a number of students, social workers,
and individuals drawn from a variety of other pro-
fessions. Though the film production was jeopar-
dized and ultimately halted by protests from white
Americans with business interests in Russia, West
seized the opportunity to stay on in the country
when the majority of the other participants re-
turned to the United States. News of her father’s
death, however, prompted her to abandon her new
ventures, which included working with Russian
filmmakers, and to return home.
West’s literary career began with the selection
of “THETYPEWRITER” as a prizewinning short story
in the 1926 literary contest sponsored by OPPOR-
TUNITY.She had published her first short fiction in
Boston newspapers and continued to write regu-
larly for Opportunity. She also was part of the seri-
ous literary society known as the SATURDAY
EVENINGQUILLCLUB. She had published in the
society’s short-lived but important publication, the
SATURDAYEVENINGQUILL. In New York, West
contributed work to Opportunityand sought out
additional venues for her literary interests such as
the New York Daily News.She was one of several
writers whom WALTERWHITEmentored.
She founded the literary magazine CHALLENGE
in 1934. The quarterly magazine represented West’s
efforts to provide a professional forum for African-
American writers. It was printed in Boston by the
Boston Chronicle.Annual subscriptions were $15,
and single copies were priced at 15 cents each.
Founded with $40 and a lot of will, the magazine
debuted in March 1934. Its four sections, “Stories,”
“Special Articles,” “Heard Songs,” and “Depart-
ments,” featured contributions by a number of rec-
ognizable Harlem Renaissance artists such as ARNA
BONTEMPS,COUNTEECULLEN, Langston Hughes,
HELENE JOHNSON,PAULI MURRAY, Lucia Mae
Pitts, and Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston heartily
supported West’s venture and responded positively
to West’s request for submissions. “Yes, to all ques-
tions,” Hurston declared in a March 1934 letter to
her friend. “I’m too delighted at your nerve in run-
ning a magazine not to help all I can,” she an-
nounced. “I loveyour audacity,” she continued.
“You have learned at last the glorious lesson of liv-
ing dangerously” (Kaplan, 296). Later issues in-
cluded book reviews, editorials, and letters, as well
as profiles of the contributors to each issue.
West reorganized the magazine three years
later as NEW CHALLENGE. The masthead re-
vealed that she and Marian Minus were the edi-
tors and that RICHARD WRIGHT, her main
collaborator, was the associate editor. Another
noticeable shift that signaled the new directions
of the journal was the extensive list of contribut-
ing editors. Included in the list of nine namesWest, Dorothy 559Novelist, editor, and essayist, Dorothy West.
Photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948 (Yale
Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare
Book and Manuscript Library)