The Romantic Spirit of the Harlem Renaissance: Wallace Thurman
In Wallace Thurman's short life and short artistic career, one
can discern tragic circumstances even more devastating than
those of Hurston. Thurman (1902-1934) was born in Salt Lake
City, Utah, and attended the University of California (Ferguson
729). He tried to create a literary movement in California like
the one in Harlem through his establishment of Outlet, a
"magazine similar to those being published" in Harlem (Ferguson
729). After the journal's failure within six months, Thurman
moved to Harlem in 1925, where he continued his artistic career
in various forms: novelist, editor, poet, playwright, and
literary critic (Ferguson 729).
Thurman's dream was to "become editor of a financially secure
magazine" (Henderson 150). He worked at several magazines in New
York before becoming involved with Hughes, Hurston, and others
to launch the journal Fire!! (1926), which was to stand
in opposition to the mainly political and propagandist magazines
being published currently: The Crisis,
Opportunity, and The Messenger. Fire!!
folded after one issue, leaving Thurman with a thousand dollar
debt it took him four years to pay back (Ferguson 730). Thurman
started another magazine in 1928, Harlem, A Forum of Negro
Life; this journal had a longer life than Fire!! but
it failed also (Ferguson 730).
Thurman then turned his talents to writing novels. His first
novel, The Blacker the Berry (1929), contains "a variety
of controversial themes including homosexuality, intraracial
prejudice, abortion, and ethnic conflict between African
Americans and Caribbean Americans" (Ferguson 730). His second
novel, Infants of the Spring (1932), is a satiric
evaluation of the Harlem Renaissance and the "judgment rendered
is harsh and unsparing" (Ferguson 730). A third novel, written
in collaboration with Abraham L. Furman, The Interne
(1932) is "an expose of unethical behavior at City Hospital on
Welfare Island (now Roosevelt Island)" (Ferguson 730).
Ironically, City Hospital would be where Thurman would spend the
last six months of his life just two years later.
Despite his literary successes and his being considered
"spokesman for the younger group of black Renaissance writers,"
Thurman was prone to bouts of depression and "self-hatred"
(Henderson 167). Thurman's "erotic, bohemian" lifestyle (as he
described it) and excessive alcohol consumption wreaked havoc on
his none too healthy body (Henderson 147). He died on December
22, 1934 at the age of 32. Thurman's friend, Arna Bontemps,
described Thurman as: "He was like a flame which burned so
intensely, it could not last for long, but quickly consumed
itself" (Henderson 147).
Bontemps' description of Thurman could just as easily be seen as
a description of the Harlem Renaissance itself. While African
American literature and art existed before the Renaissance and
continued after the Renaissance, during this period of time the
nation's attention was riveted on those several streets in New
York City. Whether this attention by the white community was
good or bad is a complex issue. Many white people were genuinely
interested in the folk and modern culture of African Americans,
but it is also true that many of them were only thrill-seekers.
But however that may be, the legacy of the Harlem Renaissance
still continues to intrigue modern America. It is an important
part of our history and culture, both black and white. Many of
the issues and themes explored by the Harlem writers, (a search
for identity, crossing boundaries, desire and loss, repression
and rebellion, nostalgia, etc) are inherent in all cultures, and
thus is something everyone can identify with. In the end, the
Harlem Renaissance succeeded in transcending racial barriers.
Bibilography
Ferguson, SallyAnn H. "Wallace Thurman." The Oxford Companion
to African American Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews,
Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1997. 729-30.
Henderson, Mae Gwendolyn. "Portrait of Wallace Thurman." The
Harlem Renaissance Remembered. Ed. Arna Bontemps. New York:
Dodd, Mead & Company, 1972. 147-170.