T
he Harlem Renaissance was an era of spirited
intellectual debate, innovative creative ven-
tures, unprecedented collaboration, and vibrant
cultural engagement. Writers, editors, artists, crit-
ics, patrons, and readers alike immersed them-
selves in enterprising literary and artistic ventures
in the years after World War I through to 1940.
The pioneering works of drama and fiction, sober-
ing political critiques, and ambitious periodicals
produced during this time confirmed the diversity,
complexity, and seemingly infinite richness of
African-American experiences. This volume,
which focuses primarily on the diverse literary his-
tory and figures associated with the period, strives
to illuminate the connections between writers and
regions. The entries assembled here also suggest
the political, racial, and cultural contexts that
shaped the works and agendas of the period’s
earnest, determined, and eloquent personalities.
Many Harlem Renaissance figures were multi-
faceted professionals who combined careers in areas
such as education, politics, and medicine with their
literary pursuits. As a result, the Harlem
Renaissance was a literary movement that was
infused with explicit political and social awareness.
Writers strategized about how best to combat racial
violence, economic and political disenfranchise-
ment, and federal malaise in the face of rising
threats to African-American civil rights. They col-
laborated on private literary projects and public
activist agendas that targeted the pernicious racism
that fueled stereotypes and racial tension through-
out the nation. As Zora Neale Hurston, recalling a
heated conversation with Alain Locke, Langston
Hughes, and Louise Thompson about representa-
tions of authentic African-American culture, noted
spiritedly in a 1934 letter to Eslanda Goode
Robeson, “I have steadily maintained that the real
us was infinit[e]ly superior to the synthetic minstrel
version, and once they have had a glimpse, the imi-
tation is rapidly losing ground” (Hurston 300). In
addition, as members of the Harlem Renaissance
explored the worlds beyond American borders, they
not only satisfied their own keen intellectual curios-
ity but also developed powerful perspectives on pan-
African experiences and insights about the best ways
to marshal the energies of like-minded compatriots.
As historian Bruce Kellner and others have
observed, the use of the phrase “Harlem Renais-
sance” suggests incorrectly that the movement was
based solely in Harlem and in Manhattan. New
York City did serve as the most visible base for the
intense social and literary networks that so defined
the period. It was there, after all, that the defini-
tive periodical publications the Crisis, Opportunity,
and Messenger were based. Writers such as
Countee Cullen, Jessie Fauset, Langston Hughes,
Helene Johnson, and Dorothy West flocked to the
city to capitalize on the growing interest in and
market for African-American productions. Yet,
other writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Arna
Bontemps, and Anne Spencer were based in cities
and countries well beyond the borders of Harlem.
Wallace Thurman, one of the period’s most ener-
getic and successful writers and editors, recognized
the need to depart from that frenetic place in order
to produce. Although he “miss[ed] the chats” he
had had with “certain kindred spirits” and the
“occasional mad nights experienced in Harlem,”
Thurman confided on one occasion in his friendINTRODUCTION
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