Essentials - Toomer, Jean
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2022 Reprint of the 1931 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Jean Toomer was one of the great literary figures from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. His signature work, Cane, is familiar to most people who have studied African-American literature. Lesser known to readers is this brilliant work, Essentials, published in 1931. After his success with Cane, Toomer disappeared from the literary scene to pursue his own philosophical and psychological inquiries. Toomer sought enlightenment in the teachings of George Gurdjieff.…mehr

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Produktbeschreibung
2022 Reprint of the 1931 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Jean Toomer was one of the great literary figures from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. His signature work, Cane, is familiar to most people who have studied African-American literature. Lesser known to readers is this brilliant work, Essentials, published in 1931. After his success with Cane, Toomer disappeared from the literary scene to pursue his own philosophical and psychological inquiries. Toomer sought enlightenment in the teachings of George Gurdjieff. During this time (1924-1935), Toomer published this slim volume offering his attempts to grapple with the experience of what it means to be human. Essentials is a collection of Toomer's ponderings in his search for wholeness in a fragmented world. Drawing on modern psychology and eastern religious belief Toomer falls into the company of Emerson, Thoreau and Gibran as he deals with that which is transcendent. He revives the use of aphorisms to convey timeless truths in a world which is incapable of moving beyond its limited definitions of life. Long ignored, this work gives us a glimpse of Toomer's metaphysical tendencies. Through it we capture another alternative view of dealing with reality. It is essential reading for anyone interested in metaphysics, African-American literature, and Toomer; it also serves as a example of a Black writer who refused to be limited by definitions of race for his life. Think on his words. Grow in the wisdom shared by a great literary giant of the 20th century." Amazon Review by Bonita L. Davis, on November 28, 2000
Autorenporträt
Jean Toomer (1894-1967) was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Nathan Toomer and Nina Elizabeth Pinchback, both of whom were of white and black heritage. After graduating from the highly regarded all-black M Street School he traveled extensively and attended six institutions of higher education studying agriculture, fitness, biology, sociology, and history. Although he never completed a degree, his wide readings among prominent contemporary poets and writers, and the lectures he attended during his college years, shaped the direction of his writing. From his earliest writings, Toomer insisted on being identified only as American. With ancestry among seven ethnic and national groups, he gained experience in both white and non-white societies, and resisted being classified as a Negro writer. He grudgingly allowed the publisher of Cane to use that term, but wrote to his publisher, Horace Liveright, "My racial composition and my position in the world are realities that I alone may determine." Although he wrote prolifically after the publication of Cane, he ceased public literary endeavors from 1950 until his death in 1967.