Förlagets beskrivning
This Volume brings together everything published by Jean Toomer, known as
the Herald of the Harlem Renaissance Foreword; Well, it finally happened: in
the year 2002, some thirty-five years following Jean Toomer's death in 1967,
someone finally got around to compiling his uncollected works and publishing
them in one magnificient volume. What a boon this will prove for Jean Toomer
scholars! For now, instead of having to stumble blindly through the dark stacks
of musty libraries throughout this great nation in search of those delightful
little magazines of the '20s and '30, where Jean Toomer first published his
poems and short stories, our scholars may now find them all under one well
lighted roof. Our scholar has only to go to his local libray, check out The
Uncollected Works of Jean Toomer, and bingo!, there's everything Toomer ever
published right at his fingertips. It is interesting to note how John Griffin
arranged Toomer's works in this volume. Instead of grouping them according to
genre (poems, vignettes, short stories and essays), Griffin arranged them
chronologically. Thus the reader can trace, from decade to decade, Toomer's evolution as a
writer--not a boring pastime by any means. The first section (1922-29) contains
several poems that Toomer published prior to the appearance of Cane in 1923, as
well as several literary criticisms and book reviews. These poems, though
published in some of the nation's leading little magazines of the 1920s, were
deleted from the Cane manuscript at the last minute thanks to Waldo Frank,
Toomer's benefactor and mentor. As for the book reviews and literay criticisms,
not even the most astute reader would guess that these were written by the same
person who authored Kabnis or any of the other stories in Cane. To the
contrary, with such works Toomer (very annoyingly) attempts to assume a
commanding intellectual voice that belies his true literary abilities. In a
futile attempt to appear a man of letters, he uses a tortured, turgid style of
writing, and a diction that is too esoteric to be interpreted by anyone other
than himself. As for his sentence constructions, the vast majority of these are of the
compound-complex variety, many running to 400-plus words in length, so that by
the time the reader has finished plowing through one of these from one end to
the other, he has forgotten how the sentence began or just what it was all
about. In addition, this first section contains numerous works--two poems,
three short stories, a play, and four essays--that are what one might call
post-Cane works, and all written following Toomer's introduction to Georges
Gurdjieff. These are, for the most part, nearly impossible even to follow, let
alone interpret. As for Section Two (1930-1936), a fairly brief section, we
find here two essays, two poems, a page of aphorisms, and a short story, which
is all that Toomer published during this seven year period. This was truly a
rollercoaster era in Toomer's life: he married noted author Margery Latimer in
'32 (following their participation in the notorious Portage Experiment), only
to see her die in childbirth a year later; then in '34 he married wealthy
Margery Content and they became permanent residents of Doylestown,
Pennsylvania. Still, through it all, Gurdjieff totally dominated Toomer's life. As for
Toomer's publications during this period, in City Plowman, a lengthy essay
concerning a visit with artist-photographer, Alfred Stieglitz, Toomer comes
closest to achieving what he had struggled for in his numerous essays. It is
cleanly and plainly written, with simple-to-compound sentence constructions and
clear-yet-sophisticated diction. Here, in the first paragraph, he captures the
reader's attention and maintains that hold throughout the essay. The final work
of this section, a 740-line poem titled The Blue Meridian, celebrates the
Mississippi River and America, and obviously reflects the influence of Walt
Whitman. It is not light reading, and for all practical purposes, would be his
last published poem. Section Three (1937-1950) was the era of the essay for
Jean Toomer. He began by printing three of his own works in his converted mill
house on his farm in Doylestown, what he called Mill House Press. These are
very readable works. Then, a few years later, in 1944, following his conversion
to the Quaker faith, he began to devote all his energies to writing religious
essays for The Friends Intelligencier. He would publish thirteen of these over the next six years, essays dealing
with moral and ethical issues that were praised by Quakers across America. And
for good reason: they make for delightful reading, regardless of one's
religious beliefs. After 1950 Toomer's health was in decline, and he had become
seriously addicted to drugs and alcohol. He would publish nothing else. W. B.
Martin; Prof. of English This work brings together everything published by Jean Toomer, known as the
Herald of the Harlem Renaissance, after the publication of "Cane" in 1923, plus
several poems he had published prior to 1923. It includes short stories, poems,
essays, and a play.
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The Uncollected Works of American Author Jean Toomer 1894-1967
Bokrecensioner » The Uncollected Works of American Author Jean Toomer 1894-1967 (Studies in American Literature (Lewiston, N.Y.), V. 58.)
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