Arna Bontemps, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1938

Arna Wendell Bontemps (October 13, 1902 - June 4, 1973) was an American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Arna Bontemps, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, August 15, 1939 From the collection of the Library of Congress and in the public domain: http://memory. ... Arna Bontemps, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, August 15, 1939 From the collection of the Library of Congress and in the public domain: http://memory. ... Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an American writer and photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. ... October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1902 (MCMII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... June 4 is the 155th day of the year (156th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar) of the 1973 Gregorian calendar. ... The poor poet A poet is a person who writes poetry. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

Life and Career

He was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, in a house at 1327 Third Street that has been recently restored and is now the Bontemps African America Museum & Cultural Arts Center. When he was three, his family moved to the Watts district of Los Angeles, California. He was graduated from Pacific Union College in California in 1923. After graduation he went to New York to teach at Harlem Academy, where he became a contributor to the Harlem Renaissance. He began writing while a student at Pacific Union College and became the author of many children's books. His critically most important work, The Story of the Negro (1948), received the Jane Addams Book Award and was also a Newbery Honor Book. He is probably best known for the 1931 novel God Sends Sunday. He also wrote the 1946 play St. Louis Woman with Countee Cullen. Alexandria is a city in Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish. ... Nickname: Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: , State California County Los Angeles County Settled 1781 Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... Pacific Union College is a Liberal Arts college located in the town of Angwin in the Napa Valley area of Northern California, 70 miles north of San Francisco. ... 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1948 calendar). ... The Newbery Honor is a citation given by the Association for Library Service to Children of the American Library Association (ALA). ... Countee Cullen, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903–January 9, 1946) was an African-American Romantic poet. ...

In 1943, after graduating from the University of Chicago with a masters degree in library science, Bontemps was appointed librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, TN. He held that position for 22 years and developed important collections and archives of African-American literature and culture. Through his librarianship and bibliographic work, Bontemps became a leading figure in establishing African-American literature as a legitimate object of study and preservation.^[1] The University of Chicago is a private university located principally in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. ... Fisk University is a historically black university in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. It was established by John Ogden, Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath and Reverend Edward P. Smith and named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmens Bureau. ...

Works

(Unless noted otherwise, Bontemps is the main author of the work)

• God Sends Sunday, (New York, Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1931)
• Popo and Fifina, Children of Haiti, by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes, (New York: Macmillan, 1932)
• You Can’t Pet a Possum, (New York: W. Morrow, 1934)
• Black Thunder, (New York: Macmillan, 1936)
• Sad-faced Boy, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937)
• Drums at Dusk: a Novel, (New York: Macmillan, 1939)
• Father of the Blues: an Autobiography, by W.C. Handy: edited by Arna Bontemps, (New York: Macmillan, 1957)
• Golden Slippers: an Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers, compiled by Arna Bontemps, (New York: Harper & Row, 1941)
• The Fast Sooner Hound, by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1942)
• They Seek a City, (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran and Co., 1945)
• We Have Tomorrow, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1945)
• Slappy Hooper, the Wonderful Sign Painter, by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946)
• Story of the Negro, (New York: Knopf, 1948)
• The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1949: an anthology, edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949)
• George Washington Carver, (Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, 1950)
• Chariot in the Sky: a Story of the Jubilee Singers, (Philadelphia: Winston, 1951)
• Sam Patch, the High, Wide & Handsome Jumper, by Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951)
• The Story of George Washington Carver, (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1954)
• Lonesome Boy, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1955)
• The Book of Negro Folklore, edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1958)
• Frederick Douglass: Slave, Fighter, Freeman, (New York: Knopf, 1959)
• 100 Years of Negro Freedom, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1961)
• American Negro Poetry, edited and with an introduction by Arna Bontemps, (New York: Hill and Wang, 1963)
• Personals, (London: P. Breman, 1963)
• Famous Negro Athletes, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1964)
• Great Slave Narratives, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969)
• Hold Fast to Dreams: Poems Old and New Selected by Arna Bontemps, (Chicago: Follett, 1969)
• Mr. Kelso’s Lion, (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1970)
• Free at Last: the Life of Frederick Douglass, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1971)
• The Harlem Renaissance Remembered: Essays, Edited, With a Memoir, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972)
• Young Booker: Booker T. Washington’s Early Days, (New York, Dodd, Mead, 1972)
• The Old South: "A Summer Tragedy" and Other Stories of the Thirties, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973)

Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and newspaper columnist. ... W.C. Handy photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an African American blues composer, often known as The Father of the Blues. ... George Washington Carver, 1906 George Washington Carver (c. ... The Fisk Jubilee Singers were a group of African American singers in the 1870s. ... Frederick Douglass, ca. ...

Notes

Further reading

• Kirkland C. Jones, Renaissance Man from Louisiana: A Biography of Arna Wendell Bontemps, (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1992). ISBN 0313280134
• Charles Harold Nichols, editor, Arna Bontemps-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925-1967, (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1980). ISBN 0396076874

External links

• Arna Bontemps Museum
• Academy of American Poets
• Tennessee Authors
• UIUC Modern American Poetry