Toomer, Jean, 1894-1967

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Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the association, and modernism. His reputation stems from his novel Cane (1923), which Toomer wrote during and after a stint as a school principal at a black school in rural Sparta, Georgia. The novel intertwines the stories of six women and includes an apparently autobiographical thread; sociologist Charles S. Johnson called it "the most astonishingly brilliant beginning of any Negro writer of his generation". He resisted being classified as a Negro writer, as he identified as "American". For more than a decade Toomer was an influential follower and representative of the pioneering spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. Later in life he took up Quakerism.

Toomer continued to write poetry, short stories and essays. His first wife died soon after the birth of their daughter. After he married again in 1934, Toomer moved with his family from New York to Doylestown, Pennsylvania. There he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (also known as Quakers) and retired from public life. His papers are held by the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University.

After leaving college, Toomer returned to Washington, DC. He published some short stories and continued writing during the volatile social period following World War I. He worked for some months in a shipyard in 1919, then escaped to middle-class life. Labor strikes and race riots of whites attacking blacks occurred in numerous major industrial cities during the summer of 1919, which became known as Red Summer as a result. People in the working class were competing after World War I for jobs and housing, and tensions erupted in violence. In Chicago and other places, blacks fought back. At the same time, it was a period of artistic ferment.

Toomer devoted eight months to the study of Eastern philosophies and continued to be interested in this subject. Some of his early writing was political, and he published three essays from 1919-1920 in the prominent socialist paper New York Call. His work drew from the socialist and "New Negro" movements of New York. Toomer was reading much new American writing, for instance Waldo Frank's Our America (1919). In 1919, he adopted "Jean Toomer" as his literary name, and it was the way he was known for most of his adult life.

By his early adult years, Toomer resisted racial classifications. He wanted to be identified only as an American. Accurately claiming ancestry among seven ethnic and national groups, he gained experience in both white and "colored" societies, and resisted being classified as a Negro writer. He grudgingly allowed his publisher of Cane to use that term to increase sales, as there was considerable interest in new Negro writers.

In 1931 Toomer married the writer Margery Latimer in Wisconsin. During their travels on the West Coast following their marriage, their marriage was covered in sensational terms by a Hearst reporter. An anti-miscegenation scandal broke, incorporating rumors about the commune they had organized earlier that year in Portage, Wisconsin. West Coast and Midwest press outlets were aroused and Time magazine sent a reporter to interview them. Toomer was criticized violently by some for marrying a European-American woman.

Latimer was a respected young writer known for her first two novels and short stories. Diagnosed with a heart leak, she suffered a hemorrhage and died in childbirth in August 1932, when their first child was born. Toomer named their only daughter Margery in his wife's memory.

In 1934 the widower Toomer married a second time, to Marjorie Content, a New York photographer. She was the daughter of Harry and Ada Content, a wealthy German-Jewish family. Her father was a successful stockbroker.

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
creatorOf Toomer, Jean, 1894-1967. Letters, 1920-1921, to Lewis Mumford. University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library
referencedIn Jean Wagner papers, 1945-1983 (inclusive), 1957-1963 (bulk). Houghton Library
creatorOf Toomer, Jean, 1894-1967. Papers. 1969. Tulane University, Amistad Research Center
referencedIn Gruner, Jessie. Letters, manuscripts, and clippings to Jessie Gruner principally from Margery Latimer, Edward Harris Heth, Karl Priebe, Richard Eldridge, and Harry Beckman, M.D. University of Wisconsin - Madison, General Library System
referencedIn Cynthia Earl Kerman papers relating to, The Lives of Jean Toomer, 1959-1982 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
creatorOf Kelm, Karlton. Papers of Karlton and William Kelm, 1928-1986. University of Iowa Libraries
referencedIn North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. General university records, 1891-1995 (bulk 1932-1995). North Carolina A&T State University, F.D. Bluford Library, Ferdinand Douglass Bluford Library
referencedIn Green, Katharine,. Oral history interview with Katharine Green [sound recording], 1975. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
referencedIn Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993. Kenneth Burke papers. 1906-1960. Pennsylvania State University Libraries
creatorOf Toomer, Jean, 1894-1967. Correspondence with Carl Zigrosser, 1928-1931, n.d. University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library
creatorOf Toomer, Jean, 1894-1967. Typed letters signed (2) : [n.p.], to Herbert J. Seligmann, 1945 Jan. 13 and 1948 Mar. 10. Pierpont Morgan Library.
referencedIn The Moldenhauer Archives at Harvard University: Manuscript music compositions, 1880-1985. Houghton Library
creatorOf Jean Toomer papers, 1898-1963 (inclusive), 1920-1954 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
referencedIn Wright, Richard, 1908-1960. Untitled speech, on African-American literature [manuscript] / by Richard Wright, undated. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Matthias, Blanche C. Letters to Blanche C. Matthias from Margery Latimer and Jean Toomer; and to Henry Chester Tracy from Margery Latimer. University of Wisconsin - Madison, General Library System
referencedIn Broadfield, Joan. Correspondence, 1986, with Edwin Bronner. Haverford College Library
referencedIn Frank, Nino. Bifur archive 1921-1930. The University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library
referencedIn Fisk University. Institute for Research in Black American Music. Fisk University Institute for Research in Black American Music collection, 1920-1985. John Hope and Aurelia E. Franklin Library. Special Collections & Archives
referencedIn Laurie Lisle research material on Georgia O'Keeffe and Louise Nevelson Archives of American Art
referencedIn Latimer, Margery, 1899-1932. Letters and manuscripts of Margery Latimer. University of Wisconsin - Madison, General Library System
referencedIn Matthias, Blanche C. Letters to Blanche C. Matthias from Margery Latimer and Jean Toomer; and to Henry Chester Tracy from Margery Latimer. University of Wisconsin - Madison, General Library System
referencedIn Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe archive, 1728-1986 Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
creatorOf Jesse Edward Moorland Papers, ca. 1790-ca. 1939 Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
referencedIn Atwood, Ormsby and Green family papers, 1853-1998. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
creatorOf Johnson, Georgia Douglas, d. 1966. Papers, ca. 1930-ca. 1960. Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941. person
associatedWith Baldwin, Louis Fremont. person
associatedWith Baldwin, Louis Fremont. person
associatedWith Bennett, John G(John Godolphin), 1897-1974. person
associatedWith Bliss, Caroline Mirza. person
associatedWith Bliss, Caroline Mirza. person
associatedWith Broadfield, Joan. person
associatedWith Bunnell, Elise. person
associatedWith Bunnell, Elise. person
correspondedWith Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993. person
associatedWith Campbell, Berta Ochsner. person
associatedWith Campbell, Berta Ochsner. person
associatedWith Cane, Melville, 1879- person
associatedWith Cayce, Edgar, 1877-1945. person
associatedWith Content, Harry, d. 1941. person
associatedWith Content, Marjorie. person
associatedWith Crane, Hart, 1899-1932. person
associatedWith Cunard, Nancy, 1896-1965. person
associatedWith Derleth, August William, 1909-1971. person
associatedWith Dupee, Charles. person
associatedWith Dupee, Charles. person
associatedWith Dupee, Gordon. person
associatedWith Dupee, Gordon. person
associatedWith Dupee, Katharine Green. person
associatedWith Dupee, Katharine Green. person
associatedWith Dupee, Yvonne. person
associatedWith Dupee, Yvonne. person
associatedWith Exman, Eugene. person
associatedWith Fauset, Jessie Redman. person
associatedWith Fauset, Jessie Redman. person
associatedWith Fisk University. Institute for Research in Black American Music. corporateBody
correspondedWith Frank, Nino. person
associatedWith Frank, Waldo David, 1889-1967. person
associatedWith Goldman, Perry M. person
associatedWith Goldsmith, Lide. person
associatedWith Goldsmith, Lide. person
associatedWith Greene, Felix. person
associatedWith Greene, Felix. person
associatedWith Green, Katharine, person
associatedWith Green, Mildred O. person
associatedWith Green, Mildred O. person
associatedWith Grove, Max. person
associatedWith Grove, Max. person
associatedWith Grove, Shirley. person
associatedWith Grove, Shirley. person
associatedWith Gruner, Jessie. person
associatedWith Gurdjieff, George Ivanovich, 1872-1949. person
associatedWith Gurdjieff, Georges Ivanovitch, 1872-1949. person
associatedWith Hergenham, Mildred. person
associatedWith Hergenham, Mildred. person
associatedWith Hood, Evelyn. person
associatedWith Hood, Evelyn. person
associatedWith Hubben, William, 1895-1974. person
associatedWith Johnson, Georgia Douglas, d. 1966. person
associatedWith Jones, Rachel Latimer. person
associatedWith Jones, Rachel Latimer. person
associatedWith Kelm, Karlton. person
associatedWith Kelm, Karlton. person
associatedWith Kelm, William. person
associatedWith Kelm, William. person
associatedWith Kerman, Cynthia Earl. person
associatedWith Lane, Betty. person
associatedWith Lane, Jeremy. person
associatedWith Lane, Jeremy. person
associatedWith Latimer, Clark Watt. person
associatedWith Latimer, Clark Watt. person
associatedWith Latimer, Laurie Bodine. person
associatedWith Latimer, Laurie Bodine. person
associatedWith Latimer, Margery, 1899-1932. person
associatedWith Lisle, Laurie. person
associatedWith Matthias, Blanche C. person
associatedWith Moldenhauer, Hans person
associatedWith Moorland, Jesse Edward, 1863-1940. person
associatedWith Naumberg, Margaret. person
associatedWith North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. corporateBody
associatedWith Pierpont Morgan Library. Seligmann Collection. corporateBody
grandchildOf Pinchback, Pinckney Benton Stewart, 1837-1921 person
associatedWith Schubart, Dorothy Obermeyer. person
associatedWith Schubart, Dorothy Obermeyer. person
associatedWith Seligmann, Herbert J., person
associatedWith Seligmann, Herbert J., Mrs, person
associatedWith Smith, Harrison. person
associatedWith Smith, Harrison. person
associatedWith Stieglitz, Alfred, 1864-1946. person
associatedWith Taylor, Edith Everett. person
associatedWith Toomer family. family
associatedWith Toomer family. family
associatedWith Toomer, Marjorie Content. person
associatedWith Toomer, Marjorie Content. person
childOf Toomer, Nathan, 1839-1906 person
childOf Toomer, Nina Pinchback. person
associatedWith Turbyfill, Mark, 1896- person
associatedWith Turbyfill, Mark, 1896- person
associatedWith Wagner, Jean, 1919- person
associatedWith Walcott, Eugenia B. person
associatedWith Walcott, Eugenia B. person
associatedWith Walcott, Russell S. person
associatedWith Walker, Dorothy. person
associatedWith Walker, Dorothy. person
associatedWith Ware, Ruth. person
associatedWith Ware, Ruth. person
associatedWith Waterson, India M. person
associatedWith Wright, Mae. person
associatedWith Wright, Mae. person
associatedWith Wright, Richard, 1908-1960. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Doylestown PA US
Sparta GA US
Republic of India 00 IN
Washington, D. C. DC US
Subject
American literature
Education
African American authors
African Americans in literature
Authors, American
Arts
Communication in marriage
Dianetics
Dreams
Society of Friends
Harlem Renaissance
Interracial marriage
Passing (Identity)
Psychoanalysis
Psychological literature
Psychology and religion
Race relations
Religious literature
Social history
Spiritualism
Streets
World War, 1939-1945
Occupation
Authors
Poet
Spiritualists
Activity

Person

Birth 1894-12-26

Death 1967-03-30

Male

African Americans,

Americans

English

Information

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