From about the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression--the period of the Harlem Renaissance--young black aspiring artists from all over the country were drawn to Harlem. Although most of the young writers came from the South, the East, and the Middle West, the most trenchant critic of the period came from the far West. A brilliant young black writer, he was drawn to the excitement of Harlem where a spiritual and cultural awakening was taking place. It seemed to promise a new beginning, a recognition of black artists by the larger society in a way that had never happened before. In a few years Wallace Thurman became not only a published novelist and successful playwright but also an editor and literary critic, succeeding in a field that had heretofore virtually excluded blacks. Thurman is an especially significant critic because he was both...