Jean Toomer Books

Passing for Who You Really Are

Falsely labeled as a "black" author because of his book of poetry and short stories, CANE (which deals almost exclusively with multiracial people), Toomer fought a life-long battle to be recognized for what he truly was. His theories of a "universal man" beyond racial demarcation makes him an important dissenting voice against the hypodescent status quo.

This is one of the best books I have ever read! Because I am a huge fan of CANE, I had to read this bio of Toomer. It is very detailed, very insightful, and provides a full view of Toomer and his family, leaving it to the reader to make a judgement about The Toomer family and Jean Toomer. I feel Toomer was a genius, and yes he was an egomaniac, but who cares? He was sensitive and spiritual and sexual and hungry for understanding and all those qualities come across in CANE and in this bio. Interestingly enough, his detatchment from blackness makes him more interesting because he forces you to think outside the box. [After all, the Black race is the only one in the US history to be said to hinge on "one drop" which is pretty ridiculous. "One drop" was a tool to keep lightskinned blacks from getting access to the money of their fathers.] I only wish Toomer could have written 1 or 2 more books in the vein of CANE.

This is a great book focusing on a man who had the courage to reject society's efforts to impose a "racial" identity upon him. He steadfastly refused to be labeled "colored" (black) or "white" and considered classification the nemesis of mankind, a reflection of intellectual empty-headedness. A quote from the book: "Thus Toomer propounded the rather unpopular view that the racial issue in America would be resolved only when white America could accept the fact that its racial 'purity' was a myth, that indeed its racial isolation produced blandness and lack of character. On the other hand, racial purity among blacks was just as much a myth and only encouraged defensiveness and unconscious imitation, like that of an adolescent who defines his revolt against his parents by the very values he is trying to renounce. Race, he said, was a fictional construct, of no use for understanding people." We need more people like Jean Toomer today!

The authors make it clear that Toomer rejected the racist ideologies of both 'blackness' and 'whiteness':

"And he had lived among blacks, among whites, among Jews, and in groups organized without racial labels around a shared interest such as literature or psychology, moving freely from any one of these groups to any other. One mark of membership in the 'colored' group, he said, was acceptance of the 'color line' with its attendant expectations; neither his family nor he had ever been so bound. To be in the white group would also imply the exclusion of the other."

It's a great book!

I really wish that some pepole out there would focus more on Mr. Toomer's writing talents and not on this whole "was he or was'nt he" about his racial background. I believe that Jean Toomer's words are powerful and universal for all people! His imagery is so amazing it's almost visual, and he is able to make the political deeply personal and not preachy. The works of this brilliant writer is far more important to me than the tiresome, trivial, and unfortunate pettiness of some individuals who want to argue about a subject that is designed to be derisive and distracting in a time when "Rome is Burning!"

This book is greatly recommened! Please add it to your library.

Jean Toomer should not be classified as "African American." He rejected that racist "one drop" classification and deserves praise and admiration for doing so. Toomer's parents and grandparents were not "black middle class" but looked whiter than many Americans who call themselves "white."Passing for Who You Really Are

For the three days, I've been carrying around a little book, "Essentials: Jean Toomer."
This 90 page book illustrates Jean Toomer is far more powerful far than what is usually granted, by narrow racialists, to this author of "Cane". I believe Toomer is one of the the most important thinkers of the twentieth century.

Toomer's "Cane" was published in 1923, is considered by many to be the first literary work of the Harlem Renaissance. "Cane" was published before he met Gurdjieff. "Essentials" was published in 1931, seven years after he met Gurdjieff and while he was leading a group of people in Chicago who were attempting to practice the Gurdjieff's system of pyschological/philosphical method of living. "Essentials" had a very small run and was uninteresting to most of those people expecting a repeat "Cane." Here is a sample of some of Toomer's aphorisms: "Men are inclined either to work without hope, or hope without work. ... Social ills are caused by man's wish to have results greater than his efforts. "
This "Essentials: Jean Toomer" is an edited version of "Essentials" and has been re-published by Rudolph Byrd, a professor of African American Studies at Emory University. Nothing has been taken out of "Essentials"; however, something is added:
1. the former unpublished introduction, by Gorham Munson, written for the original.
2. a preface by Charles Johnson, African American author of National Book Award winning "Middle Passage"

Johnson says, "In American Literature, Toomer is unique -- a metaphysical pioneering genius, and this volume ['essentials'] of distilled reflections are indeed essential for the [twenty-first century]."

Jean Toomer was one of the great literary figures from the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920's. His signature work, Cane, is known by most people who have studied African-American literatureo. 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. He went against the grain of his time which believed African-Americans were not capable of exploring the world of metaphysics, let alone psychology. Toomer, way ahead of his time proved them wrong as he 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 comapny 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 incable of moving beyond its limited definitions of life.

Long ignored, this work gives us a glimpse of Toomer's metaphysical side. Through it we capture another alternative view of dealing with reality. It is essential reading for anyone interested in metaphysics, African-American literature, Toomer and as an 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.

Previous critics have written about Toomer's biography, its interconnections with his art and the art of his contemporaries. However, no other critic to date have given so much prominence and meaningful prominence to the philosophical influence Gurdjieff had upon such black writers as Larsen, Schuyler, Thurman and Hurston. His interpretation is thoroughly grounded in firm intellectual work.

To Make a New Race is a must have book for all literary scholars and those interested in African American history. I received it this morning and haven't put it down since. Woodson does a fine job of decoding the influnce of Gurdijeff and Toomer on the writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance

THE LETTERS OF JEAN TOOMER, 1919-1924, edited by Mark Whalen, with a Foreword by Barbara Foley. U. of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN; [...]. 2006. 249+xliv pp. $[...] hardcover, ISBN 1-57233-470-3. notes, appendix, bibliography, index.
Lewis Mumford, Alfred Steiglitz, Harte Crane, Countee Cullen, and Sherwood Anderson were among the notables of his era the leading Harlem Renaissance writer Jean Toomer corresponded with. Toomer's letters to these and others have meticulous notes by Whalen, a lecturer in American literature at the U. of Exeter; which notes give a pronounced biographical and critical dimension to the volume. Most of the letters are now at the Beinecke Library at Yale. They were written in the few years surrounding the publication of Toomer's book "Cane" which brought him into the spotlight. Not only this and other works, but also many of the letters try to come to grips with Toomer's complex racial make-up. In a letter to his publisher Horace Liveright, he writes, "My racial composition and my position in the world are realities which I alone may determine...Feature Negro if you wish, but do not expect me to feature it in advertisements for you...Whatever statements I give will inevitably come from a synthetic human and art point of view; not from a racial one." Such letters record Toomer's finely-tuned thoughts on social, political, and literary realities and issues in America at the time. The letters from the relatively short period associated with the completion and publication of Toomer's signature work "Cane" give a crystallized picture of the psychology, values, and aims of this author.

Split-Gut Song: Jean Toomer And The Poetics Of Modernity explores what it means to be a modern African-American poet by scrutinizing Jean Toomer's body of work, in particular "Cane", which was first published in 1923 and widely hailed as ushering in a truly artistic African-American literary tradition. Yet Toomer's experimental literature has often been viewed in terms of political radicalism rather than literary radicalism. Associate Professor of English Karen Jackson Ford offers a close analysis of Toomer's poetry, letters, and essays, extracting an analysis that explores a contradiction between traditional lyric poetry and the crushing pressures of modernity. Toomer's efforts to better understand and convey the tangled complexity that was race and art in 20th century America shines through in this articulate and carefully thought out work of literary criticism.

I had seen a few of the poems from Jean Toomer's book Cane in the various Black Poetry anthologies that I had collected, however I really had no clear knowledge of the importance of this work in the American literary landscape until reading Chezia Thompson Cager's, "Teaching Jean Toomer's 1923 CANE." What I knew about Toomer or P.B.S. Pinchback before I read this book I could have put in a thimble. I knew Toomer was a bi-racial writer with sensibilities like Whitman, who moved between the Negro and Caucasian societies, and that his form of spirituality differed from most other Blacks in early 20th century America.

My understanding of Toomer was that he was a bit of a humanist - and I called the disembodied poems I had read in the various anthologies beautiful. I clearly did not understand how the metaphors in these poems related to the larger body of work in "Cane," or know how they reflected a complex view of the psychology of the Negro in 1920 America.

Thompson-Cager's analysis of "Cane" occurs on two levels. One gives the reader an in depth understanding of Toomer's social, intellectual, and spiritual development, which is juxtaposed alongside the history of the evolution of the African peoples in America. Her perspective is unique as she explores reasons behind this literary construction, which had previously eluded other critiques.

Thompson-Cager uses what is called "The Vertical Technique" in her analysis of "Cane". The text of Cane is explained using the following 4 stages of development; "The Incursion Cycle which depicts an attack on someone or something, The Atrophy Cycle Depicts the withering away of someone or something, The Destruction Cycle Depicts the annihilation or negative transformation of someone or something, and the rejuvenation Cycle Depicts the rebirth or the promise of a rebirth of someone or something." Thompson-Cager states that "The Vertical Technique puts all Africana people in the process of resolving a series of problems. Miraculously, Cane identifies and explores many of these problems still relevant in the twenty first century". (90) We could look at the people in Iraq over the past century, and use this same technique to write their multitude of stories.

Charts and diagrams demonstrate the function of the "vertical technique" and provide a roadmap to where each of the characters of Cane fit in the larger picture. The parallel information dealing with the history of the times which included issues around the inability of characters to realize artistic potential because of racial inequality, lack of women's rights, the implications of the Black migration, and the introduction of "legal" addictive narcotics into the culture, provides an excellent foundation for understanding the psychology of the culture as a whole.

After reading "Teaching Jean Toomer's 1923 Cane," I came away with a better understanding of the metaphors in "Cane." As I re-read "Cane", I fully admired how Toomer loved the work of manipulating language. I did not see the text as disjointed ramblings, but rather a complex series of interdependent portraits created in such a way that they would not cause too much discomfort in the status quo. The language of "Cane" so eloquently describes some of the most inhumane acts and through Thompson-Cager's analysis, the code is broken.

"Teaching Jean Toomer's 1923 CANE" is a challenging read, however like most challenges it has much to offer educators and writers. I highly recommend it to those who are interested in honing perspectives on the human condition and to those who want to try a different approach to the work of writing as witness.

There is a two disc companion CD that accompanies this work, "Teaching Jean Toomer's 1923 CANE, The Performance", Adapted and Directed by Chezia Thompson Cager. This is an archival recording of a 1978 performance of "Cane". Photographs of the production are included in the book "Teaching Jean Toomer's 1923 CANE." I found that hearing the voices and dialects of the characters was essential to fully experiencing the "blues motif" style of "Cane". The quality of the CD is reminiscent of listening to a 45 on the Victrola, so older listeners will experience a bit of nostalgia, while younger listeners may be somewhat impatient with the lo-tech, no frills, true to the period quality of the disc.

Linda Joy Burke
Poet and Writer

This is the most amazing book. I am so sad that Jean Toomer did not write any other fiction.

Cane is a collection of short stories that are loosely connected by theme and mood. It seems that the characters are very stifled by their environment. The main characters of each story seem to be either too introspective to include anyone in their lives or too extrospective/judgmental to form an honest bond with anyone. One quote from the book I think sums it up: "Time and space do not exist in a canefield." I think Toomer was saying that slavery still exists, but rather within the souls of black people. The memory or the history of it is the root of a very serious unhappiness, which begets stagnation, indifference and social impotence.

the first few chapters alone is worth having this book in your library. It reads like smooth passionate music, writing prose like poetry, capturing moments in history, in the past of our country, that many do not often think about. this book is amazing.

There appear to be several tangled threads in CANE that join the three parts of the book together. The first thread unifying the collection of poetry and prose is the way it was put together. In book one you have the narrator observing rural negroes in the south. In book two you have the narrator express-ing the discontent of urban negroes. Then, in book three, you have old Kabnis, a northern negro, trying to escape his pain by returning to his roots in rural Georgia. Coming full-circle. And yet not. Part Two should come first, with its discontented youth, then "Kabnis", then Part One. Why does Toomer choose to progress from spiritual unity to disunity? Is it because the book truly represents a cycle which has no beginning and no end? A clue to this is in two poems, "Reapers" and "Harvest Song". Both are written on related topics, and yet "Reapers" is the first poem of the book, and "Harvest Song" the last. In "Reapers" a rat is injured by a scythe, and yet "the blade, blooded-stained, continues cutting weeds and shade" oblivious to or uncaring of the rat's injuries and pain. In "Harvest Song" the narrator is a reaper who, at the end of the day, with his work still unfinshed, fears his own hunger so much that he distracts himself with pain, "...My pain is sweet...It will not bring me knowledge of my hunger." What, exactly, is it that Toomer's characters hunger for?

Another thread appears to me to be the striving for unity. This desire for unity is expressed in the ways in which the men and women in CANE strive toward unity in their relation-ships. Admittedly, they fail miserably. The women in the book are terribly one-sided--sex objects that are either passive, as with Karintha and Fern and Avey, or active, as with Carma and Louisa and Bona. However, for all their being available physically, the females Toomer portrays in his cameos are untouchable or out of reach spiritually. The men are also one-sided--rational and yet passionate, often overcome by lust and rage. These probably function to demonstrate Toomer's personal views on what men and women are, and how their desires for unity in healthy relation-ships produces a significant amount of pain as a result of their oppositeness.

Pain is yet another thread that unifies the poetry, sketches, stories and drama of CANE. After all is experienced, the pain is what is left, the only significant fruit of their struggles. In Part One, the pain everyone suffers seems to be symbolized by the ever-present cane. The cane, which can cut the skin, must be ground, the juice boiled and cooled, in order to obtain it sweetness. Is the pain which the characters savor the sweetness in their lives? And if so, wouldn't the cane also represent the sweetness (pain) in their lives? In Part Two, which takes place in the urban North, the Negroes live repressed, frustrated, and sadly warped lives. The pain is intellectualized, yet it is still there, doubly so. Is this a result of being separated from the soil--that which is perceived to be source of their spirituality--as well as their failure to form meaningful relationships? The pain in "Kabnis" is more incoherent, the pain of an urban negro who has returned to his roots only to find that he cannot accept them, is alienated by them.

It is impossible to discuss all of the tangled threads that weave CANE into the powerfully moving and unorthodox novel of Toomer's voyage of self-discovery. It is often incoherent, filled with evocative recurrent images, and powerful character sketches that leave the reader unfulfilled, confused, and hungry for more. Perhaps it is Toomer's own hunger, expressed in his writing, that the reader picks up. If there was more to the novel, perhaps one could pin down the more elusive points. Then again, perhaps not.

I write this review with the realization that it is likely to be unpopular, nevertheless, I found the book to be very trying. While I can appreciate the modernist approach which was employed years before its time, the experimental nature of the writing had my head spinning. The text itself is a mixed bag that includes not only prose, but poetry and drama as well. Toomer insisted on these pieces being put together to form a novel, but I cannot help but feel many of the inclusions would have faired better standing alone. In my particular reading experience, I found that many of the pieces do not interlock or even coincide, which produces a sort of start-and-stop reading ordeal. There is simply no fluidity in the text.
Toomer was of mixed heritage, so the book is rife with ambivalence and a proverbial tug-of-war between "light and dark." It has been pointed out that Toomer was very much influenced by Picasso's cubism and worked to recreate this in his literature. As far as I know, Toomer and Gertrude Stein are the only two to have done this, and the effect is arrantly vertiginous in both cases.
In literary circles, this book is considered a must-read in African-American literature, and for that reason, it should be read and contemplated. However, if you are looking for leisure reading, I would suggest something else. The book is only 112 pages long, but I found that it somehow seemed rather "Victorian" in length. It is by no means fast.
In defense of the book, I think my problem with it is a result of preferring prose over poetry and drama. If you are a reader that likes all genres equally, you may find this considerably more enjoyable.
Suggested Af/Am Lit: Wright's Black Boy, Morrison's Song of Solomon, Ellison's Invisible Man, Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition, and Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi.

Interesting study of the construct of race and how little and how very much the definitions matter.

This is a really well-written book! The author does a nice job of balancing his interest in the lives of four specific people with the big picture. With a very big picture! I especially liked the equal attention paid to the stories of white America and black America, not to mention everything in between or outside of these. And the section on Jean Toomer is so very sad and very moving.

This is an exceptional addition to the body of work that explores the idea of race as a social and ideological construct in American history. In four tightly argued essays, Guterl deftly analyzes the contributions (and contradictions) of Madison Grant, W.E.B. Dubois, Jean Toomer, and Daniel Calahan as a viable window to the problems inherent in the color line. This work is a welcome (and highly sophisticated) addition to the field of whiteness studies (joining such works as Matthew Frye Jacobson's *Whiteness of a Different Color*, George Lipsitz's *Possessive Investment in Whiteness* and of course, David Roediger's *Wages of Whiteness*) as well as the growing body of work on scientific racism (one thinks of Lee Baker's work, *From Savage to Negro*) and race biography (following in the footsteps of his mentor David Levering Lewis). This book makes a number of promises and certailny delivers the goods. It is a wonderfully written book that weaves personal and historical information in a seamless study. I highly recommend it!!!!

Toomer was neither self-identified himself as African American nor as European American but sought to transend all racial existence.

Readers who call Jean Toomer "black" or "African American" are totally in error. He rejected that racist "one drop" classification and deserves praise and admiration for doing so. Toomer's parents and grandparents were not "black middle class" but looked whiter than many Americans who call themselves "white."