Jean Toomer
Born December 26, 1894
Washington, D.C.
Died March 30, 1967
Doylestown, Pennsylvania
American poet, short story writer, dramatist, and essayist
Jean Toomer was hailed as the country's leading "Negro writer," but instead of being proud he was dismayed. He did not wish to be viewed through the lens of race. He considered himself simply an American writer who had written about the black experience in America.
With the publication of his novel Cane (1923), which was immediately hailed as a masterpiece of American literature and perhaps the highest achievement that any African American writer had yet attained, Jean Toomer moved to the forefront of all the promising young poets, novelists, and other artists of the Harlem Renaissance. Toomer soon turned his back on his newfound fame, however, to continue his lifelong search for inner peace, a more spiritual existence, and an identity that was universal rather than racial. Although he never achieved the brilliant career that many had foreseen for him, Toomer still stands as a brilliant author of the 1920s. Cane remains a major accomplishment and one of the finest works—if not the best—to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance.
A Mixed-Race Family
Nathan Eugene Toomer (he began using the name Jean at the start of his literary career) was born in Washington, D.C., to a family of mixed European and African heritage.
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