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The Romantic Spirit of the Harlem Renaissance: Jean Toomer  by: Mary Arnold In his only novel on African Americans, Jean Toomer also found beauty in the "vernacular culture" among the people in Sparta, Georgia, where Toomer spent two months working as an interim principal at the Sparta Agricultural and Industrial Institute in 1921 (Byrd 733). Nathan Pinchback Toomer (1894–1967) changed his name to Jean after his move to Greenwich Village and reading Romain Rolland's Jean Christophe (1904), in an effort to "solidify his emerging identity as a writer" (Byrd 733). Toomer’s experimental novel, Cane (1923), is described as "a record of his discovery of his southern heritage, an homage to a folk culture that he believed was evanescent, and an exploration of the forces that he believed were the foundation for the spiritual fragmentation of his generation" (Byrd 733). Although Toomer continued writing after the publication of Cane until the time of his death, he did not have any other works of fiction published during his lifetime (Byrd 733). After coming under the influence Georgei I. Gurdjieff, a Russian mystic and psychologist, Toomer never returned to depicting African American life (Byrd 733). This change in subject matter could be attributed to Toomer’s efforts to "transcend" the "narrow divisions of race" (Byrd 734). Due to his desire for transcendence of racial boundaries, Toomer's later writings do not employ any racial themes; also this desire led Toomer to disassociate himself from Cane, the "work that has earned him a central place in the African American literary tradition" (Byrd 734). Despite Toomer's later rejection of racial themes, many of the Harlem writers were considerably influenced by Cane, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston, the most prolific black woman writer in her lifetime, is the most extraordinary, intriguing, but ultimately tragic, participant in the Harlem Renaissance. Bibliography Byrd, Rudolph P. "Jean Toomer." The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 733-734. About The Author Mary Arnold holds a B.A. in literature and history. She is an author on Writing.Com which is located at http://www.Writing.Com/ and is accessible by anyone. Her writing portfolio may be viewed at http://www.Writing.com/authors/ja77521 This article was posted on February 09, 2006 Read More Articles from the "Writing" Category: 7 Steps to Writing Effective Cover Letters by Robert Moment Essay Types and Modes You'll Need to Write for College by Roxanne McDonald Does Your Plot Suit Your Characters And Vice-Versa? by Nick Vernon The Title That Hooked The Most Readers by Steve Gillman How To Use The Flesch Grade Level Readability Formula To Write For Your Audience by Jesse Dawson Top 10 Ways to Know your Book Concept will Sell--Before you Invest Time and Money by Judy Cullins Top Nine Essential "Hot-Selling Points" To Pre-Market your Book for Big Sales by Judy Cullins For Beginners: 10 Ways To Prepare To Get Published by Jill Nagle Great Technical Writing: Beware Of Your Editor/Love Your Editor by Barry Millman 5 Questions to ask before purchasing a book online by Anand Srinivasan << Back to "Writing" Index

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