This week, let’s talk about a Philadelphian who was instrumental in the Harlem Renaissance — but has been left on the margins of its history. We start with a headline from the Philadelphia Tribune on this day, March 7, in 1929: “Fauset Writes Unusually Entertaining New Negro Novel.”
The novel referenced in that headline is called “Plum Bun.” And it’s generally considered the best work by a writer named Jessie Redmon Fauset. The book’s plot revolves around a mixed-race woman from Philadelphia who passes for white to pursue her artistic dreams.
In its review, the Philadelphia Tribune called Plum Bun “the best written novel by a Negro so far.”
So, why doesn’t the name Jessie Redmon Fauset resonate today in the same way that names like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay do? Especially since in her lifetime, Fauset helped promote the work of all of these writers.
Let’s rewind…
Much of Fauset’s work revolved around middle-class Black life. Fauset herself was born April 27, 1882 to a minister in Camden County. The family later moved to Philadelphia, where Fauset graduated with honors at the city’s prestigious High School for Girls.
Fauset then attended Cornell University, where she was among the first Black women admitted to Phi Beta Kappa, and earned a degree in classical languages in 1905. In 1919, she received a masters degree in French from Penn.
Despite her evident brilliance, Fauset couldn’t get work teaching in Philly’s public schools, so she instead taught in Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
While in D.C., Fauset met legendary sociologist W.E.B. DuBois. In 1919, DuBois convinced Fauset to move to New York City and become literary editor of The Crisis — the NAACP’s magazine. In that role, Fauset became a key player in Black literature at a critical time.
The pages of The Crisis captured and reflected the artistic ferment that we now know as the Harlem Renaissance. Fauset published authors like Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and more.
It was The Crisis — under Fauset’s editorship — that first published Hughes. His poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” appeared in its pages in 1921 — when Hughes was just 19. Hughes later called Fauset one of three people who “midwifed…New Negro literature into being.”
Fauset also wrote frequently for The Crisis. And she published four novels between 1924 and 1933.
But she eventually receded from the Black literary scene. Why? This piece in the New Yorker by Morgan Jerkins provides a good summary.
Citing scholar David Levering Lewis, Jerkins says Fauset felt increasingly alienated by The Crisis’ shift away from literature. Lewis also suggests that Fauset and DuBois may have had a romantic relationship, which potentially undermined their professional one.
And as a woman, Lewis says, Fauset simply did not get the same opportunities that her male contemporaries enjoyed. After leaving The Crisis in 1926, Fauset unsuccessfully sought employment in publishing. She eventually married and returned to teaching in her native New Jersey.
In later years, Fauset moved once again, leaving New Jersey for Philadelphia. She died here, in 1961, of heart disease.
When Fauset wrote “Plum Bun” in the late 1920s, she opened a window into Black professional life. The Tribune said the subject would be a hard sell since most white readers preferred “the jazzy, trashy, and degenerate stuff.”
The Tribune called on its readers to champion “Plum Bun” so that wider audiences could see Black people “as they rather wish to be seen.”
Fun fact: Fauset’s sister-in-law, Crystal Bird Fauset, ran for office in Philly and became the first Black woman to serve in a state legislature.
Originally posted by Avi Wolfman-Arent (@Avi_WA) on March 7, 2024.
