Jean Toomer
(1894-1967)

“For many, the literary renaissance in Harlem began with the publication of Cane. It was hailed as a masterpiece, as a fresh voice from a very promising young writer. This publication also brought Toomer in contact with other black intellectuals. However, his spiritual quest took him away from race issues; he studied and became converted to the spiritual thought of the Russian mystic Georgi Gurdjieff and spent his time lecturing on mystical doctrines. His racial ambivalence and involvement with mysticism could explain his inability to recapture the promise of Cane”.—California State University Stanislaus

“Racially, I seem to have (who knows for sure) seven blood mixtures: French, Dutch, Welsh, Negro, German, Jewish, and Indian. One half of my family is definitely colored.... And, I alone, as far as I know, have striven for a spiritual fusion analogous to the fact of racial intermingling.”.—Jean Toomer
 

Toomer Information taken from:
Introduction to Cane
as appearing in the Perennial Classic edition
copyright ' 1969 by ARNA BONTEMP

"Whenever the desire to know something about myself comes from a sincere source, I am always glad to meet it. For in telling other folks I invariably tell my own self something. My family is from the South. My mother's father, P B. S. Pinchback, born in Macon, Georgia, left home as a boy and worked on the Mississippi River steamers. At the beginning of the Civil War he organized and was commissioned captain of a Negro company in New Orleans. Later, in the days of Reconstruction, he utilized the Negro's vote and won offices for himself, the highest being that of lieutenant, and then acting governor of Louisiana. When his heyday was over, he left the old hunting grounds and came to Washington. Here I was born. My own father likewise came from Middle Georgia. Racially, I seem to have (who knows for sure) seven blood mixtures: French, Dutch, Welsh, Negro, German, Jewish, and Indian. Because of these, my position in America has been a curious one. I have lived equally amid the two race groups. Now white, now colored. From my own point of view I am naturally and inevitably an American. I have strived for a spiritual fusion analogous to the fact of racial intermingling. Without denying a single element in me, with no desire to subdue one to the other, I have sought to let them function as complements. I have tried to let them live in harmony. Within the last two or three years, however, my growing need for artistic expression has pulled me deeper and deeper into the Negro group. And as my powers of receptivity increased, I found myself loving it in a way that I could never love the other. It has stimulated and fertilized whatever creative talent I may contain within me. A visit to Georgia last fall was the starting point of almost everything of worth that I have done. I heard folk-songs come from the lips of Negro peasants. I saw the rich dusk beauty that I had heard many false accents about, and of which till then, I was somewhat skeptical. And a deep part of my nature, a part that I had repressed, sprang suddenly to life and responded to them. Now, I cannot conceive of myself as aloof and separated. My point of view has not changed; it has deepened, it has widened. Personally, my life has been torturous and dispersed. The comparative wealth which my family once had, has now dwindled away to almost nothing. We, or rather, they, are in the unhappy position of the lowered middle-class. There seems to have been no shop-keepers or shysters among us. I have lived by turn in Washington, New York, Chicago, Sparta, Georgia, and several smaller towns. I have worked, it seems to me, at everything: selling papers, delivery boy, soda clerk, salesman, shipyard worker, librarian-assistant, physical director, school teacher, grocery clerk, and God knows what all. Neither the universities of Wisconsin or New York gave me what I wanted, so I quit them. Just how I finally found my stride in writing, is difficult to lay hold of. It has been pushing through for the past four years. For two years, now, I have been in solitude here in Washington. It may be begging hunger to say that I am staking my living on my work. So be it. The mould is cast, and I cannot turn back even if I would."

 

Cane
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ISBN: 0871401517
Pub. Date: August 1993 (originally Published in 1923)
Format: Paperback, 138pp
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation

Read Arna Bontemp's introduction to Cane
as it appeared in the Perennial Classic edition copyright 1969

Cane is Jean Toomer's acclaimed exploration of the American racial temperament of the 1920s. Using his own life as a model, Toomer explores the issues of race and identity that simmer just below the fragile American social veneer. Organized in three sections, these stories and vignettes are also interspersed with poetry. Toomer's brilliant interweaving of black folk culture within themes of miscegenation, black sexuality, and racial identity and conflict turned this novel into a literary high point.

Toomer's book represented and served to introduce the now self-aware and emergent "new" Negro. In fact, the author himself was embraced by the white literary avant-garde as a modernist of the first order. While initially a commercial failure, Cane is now considered a twentieth-century masterpiece.

 

The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer
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ISBN: 0807842095
Pub. Date: March 1988
Format: Paperback, 148pp
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press, The

With his first published work, the lyrical narrative Cane (1923), Toomer joined the first rank of Afro-American writers. But the creative output that followed went largely unrecognized during his lifetime. He did not, however, cease writingas these 55 poems, many previously unpublished, attest. His poetry became a means of expressing his quest of an idealist philosophy, one in which men were not separated by skin color but, as in the volume's centerpiece, ``Blue Meridian,'' would come together to create a new American race. ``This attempt to assemble a standard edition of Toomer's poetical works'' deserves a place in all large public and academic libraries.   'Library Journal

 

Jean Toomer Reader: Selected and Unpublished Writings
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ISBN: 0195083296
Pub. Date: December 1993
Format: Textbook Paperback, 320pp
Publisher: Oxford University Press

Jean Toomer achieved instant recognition as a critic and thinker in 1923 with the publication of his novel Cane, a harsh, eloquent vision of black American hardship and suffering. But because of his reclusive, introspective nature, Toomer's fame waned in later years, and today his other contributions to American thought and literature are all but forgotten. Now, this collection of unpublished writings restores a crucial dimension to our understanding of this important African American author. Thematically arranging letters, sketches, poems, autobiography, short stories, a play, and a children's story, Frederik Rusch offers insight into Toomer's mind and spirituality, his feelings on racial identity in America, and his attitudes toward and ideas about Cane. Rusch highlights Toomer's reflections on America, its people, landscape, and politics, reveals his significance for the problems and issues of today, and helps us understand Toomer not only as writer, but also as social critic, prophet, mystic, and idealist. Exploring Toomer's attempts to find self-realization and transcend social and cultural definitions of race, this book offers a unique view of the United States through the life of one of its most significant and fascinating intellectuals.

 

Essentials: Timeless Truths for Living in Today's World
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ISBN: 1892514257
Pub. Date: October 1999
Format: Hardcover, 128pp
Publisher: Hill Street Press, LLC

A timeless collection of aphorisms by the acclaimed author of Cane, one of the most important books of the twentieth century, Essentials challenges us to consider our search for wholeness and connection with one another in an age of fragmentation, alienation, and exploitation. Destined to become a cult classic, it is inspired by Toomer's study under Gurdjieff and framed by a unique blending of Eastern spirituality and modern psychology. It includes reflections on topics ranging from the dangers of an industrial (and technological) age to the failure of modern religious and educational institutions. Above all, the brilliance set forth in Essentials affirms Toomer's position as America's true African American pioneering genius.

Jean Toomer (1894'1967) was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance and is best known for his groundbreaking book, Cane. Ever extending his spiritual search, he studied with G. I. Gurdjieff in Chicago and later worked for the American Society of Friends and the Quaker Church in Pennsylvania. Charles Johnson teaches at the University of Washington and is the author of many books, including Middle