The Wayward and the Seeking A Collection of Writings

This collection of unpublished autobiographical writings, fiction, poetry, and dramatic works reveals the forces that beckoned Toomer away from a literary life

FictionLiterary CollectionsAmericanAfrican American & BlackLiterary Criticism

RELEASED1982

PUBLISHERHoward University Press

LENGTH450

LANGUAGEEN

Jean ToomerAmerican poet and novelist (1894–1967)

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. Jean 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.

The Wayward and the Seeking A Collection of Writings

by Jean Toomer

This collection of unpublished autobiographical writings, fiction, poetry, and dramatic works reveals the forces that beckoned Toomer away from a literary life

FictionLiterary CollectionsAmericanAfrican American & BlackLiterary Criticism

RELEASED1982

PUBLISHERHoward University Press

LENGTH450

LANGUAGEEN

Jean ToomerAmerican poet and novelist (1894–1967)

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. Jean 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.