Bontemps acknowledges Christian Documents

Letter 25

703 E. 50th Place

Chicago, Illinois

23 March '43

Dear Christian:

Just a quick one. I am trying to clear my desk before leaving for the eastern jaunt--Rutland, Vermont, New York City and Washington. By the time you receive this I expect to be on my way. I must, however, take a moment to thank you for the materials for the YALE collection. They arrived yesterday, and I have had a good time reading the poems. I was also interested in the Schomberg letters. The whole batch is being relayed to Carl Van Vechten today. Perhaps I'll have a chance to talk to him about the gift in New York.

Meanwhile, that translation of Desdunes would still be most welcome. Also the Randolph Edmonds manuscript and autographed book!

My trip to Fisk was very pleasant, but it left me still waiting for the coin to flip. In other words, no final settlement has been made.

Incidentally, I know a terrific secret. Use your imagination if you wish. Perhaps it will violate no confidence if I simply say that it bodes no ill for you.

Ever sincerely,

Bontemps

P.S. Did you get that copy of Vail, De la literature et des hommes de lettres des Etats-Unis (Paris, 1841) mentioned in Veith's letter to you. He says that pages 321-34 treat Negro authors, and that sounds fascinating, considering the date. What are chances of having a look at the volume? Or is the material interesting enough to bother with?

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Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902-1973) -- born in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of Creole parents -- was one of the more prolific writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He was the author of over 25 books of poetry, history, biography, fiction and anthologies. Bontemps was a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Bontemps served as head librarian at Fisk University from 1969 to 1972. He was also curator of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale University. In 1923, Bontemps received his B.A. from Pacific Union College in Angwin. In 1924, his poetry appeared in Crisis magazine, the NACCP periodical edited by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois.

In 1926 Golgotha Is a Mountain won the Alexander Pushkin Award and in 1927 Nocturne at Bethesda achieved first honors in the Crisis poetry contest. Personals, a collection of poetry was published in 1963.

Bontemps then turned to prose. In the decade of the thirties, he wrote three acclaimed novels God Sends Sunday (1931); Black Thunder (1936); and Drums at Dusk (1939). Frustrated in his ability to reach his own generation Bontemps to literature for children and young graders. In 1937 he published the Sad-Faced Boy; and others for young audience included We Have Tomorrow (1945) Slappy Hopper (1946) and Story of the Negro (1948).

Bontemps was involved in the publication of at least three anthologies: Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers (1941); with Langston Hughes, The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949 (1949); and Bontemps, American Negro Poetry (1963 & 1974 rev.). Bontemps was gracious enough to include Christian's poems in all his anthologies.

Bontemps' beautiful short story "A Summer Tragedy" is found often in anthologies. It is indeed a treat. His poems "A Black Man Thinks of Reaping," "Southern Mansion," and "Nocturne at Bethesda" are often anthologized. But such poems as "My Heart Has Known Its Winter" and "Day Breakers" are also found in anthologies.

Early in his career Bontemps had wanted to get a Ph.D. in English but with his marriage in 1926 and the coming of six children he had to work. He taught for awhile at an Alabama junior college. With the coming of the Depression he worked for the Illinois WPA and supervised and assisted in the writing of a history of the Negro in Illinois. In 1943 he completed a degree in library science and served as librarian at Fisk University and developed an archive of African American cultural materials that is a major resource for study in this field.

Anyplace But Here

Arna Wendell Bontemps : A Bibliography

Robert E Fleming. James Weldon Johnson and Arna Wendell Bontemps: A reference guide. G. K. Hall, 1978

Kirkland C. Jones. Man from Louisiana; A Biography of Arna Wendell Bontemps.. Greenwood Press, 1992.

Sterling Brown "Arna Bontemps: Co-worker, Comrade." Black World 22:11 (September 1973): 92-98.

Wikipedia-Wendell_Bontemps