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Ebony Rising
Short Fiction of the Greater Harlem Renaissance Era
by Craig Gable
Published by: Indiana University Press
600 Pages
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Ebony Rising is the first comprehensive, gender-balanced collection of short fiction from the greater Harlem Renaissance era (1912–1940). This was a time marked by writing of extraordinary breadth and depth by some of the most famous authors in African American literary history. Among them were Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Dorothy West, and Claude McKay. Not surprisingly, these authors have received an unprecedented amount of critical attention, and their work remains popular to this day.
For this anthology, Craig Gable has selected 52 short stories by 37 writers (20 women and 17 men) representing a wide range of style, form, subject matter, and social awareness. To underscore the movement's growth and change, the stories are arranged chronologically by year of publication. Some will be familiar to readers; many more will not, for this is not the "greatest hits" of the Harlem Renaissance. Instead, readers will find a remarkable collection of fiction by authors famous and obscure—some who lived in New York City and others who never resided there. There are stories set in Harlem, but they are just as likely to take place elsewhere in the United States. Alongside traditional stories, there are examples of detective fiction, political satire, even science fiction, with a few experiments in narrative structure and form for good measure. The stories take up issues of race, marriage, parenthood, crime, politics, religion, work, abuse, old age, and death—in short, the stuff of life, and of compelling and lasting fiction.
A selected bibliography documents some 300 books and articles on the Harlem Renaissance. There is a separate list of sources for other short stories by the authors appearing in this anthology; a list of award-winning short fiction from two black literary contests of the day; timelines of important historical, literary, and cultural events; and other aids for teachers, students, and reading groups.
Preface by Craig Gable
Introduction by Darryl Dickson-Carr
Short Stories
1912-19 timeline
Hope Deferred (1914) Alice Dunbar-Nelson
The Closing Door (1919) Angelina Weld Grimké
Mary Elizabeth (1919) Jessie Redmon Fauset
1920 timeline
The Comet (1920) W. E. B. Du Bois
1921 timeline
The Foolish and the Wise: Sallie Runner Is Introduced to Socrates (1921) Leila Amos Pendleton
1922 timeline
The Foolish and the Wise: Sanctum 777 N. S. D. C. O. U. Meets Cleopatra (1922) Leila Amos Pendleton
Becky (1922) Jean Toomer
1923 timeline
Esther (1923) Jean Toomer
1924 timeline
Vignettes of the Dusk (1924) Eric Walrond
Blue Aloes (1924) Ottie B. Graham
Slackened Caprice (1924) Ottie B. Graham
1925 timeline
The City of Refuge (1925) Rudolph Fisher
The Golden Penknife (1925) S. Miller Johnson
Mademoiselle 'Tasie (1925) Eloise Bibb Thompson
1926 timeline
Grist in the Mill (1926) Wallace Thurman
Hannah Byde (1926) Dorothy West
Muttsy (1926) Zora Neale Hurston
The Eatonville Anthology (1926) Zora Neale Hurston
Cordelia the Crude (1926) Wallace Thurman
Smoke, Lilies and Jade (1926) Richard Bruce Nugent
Wedding Day (1926) Gwendolyn B. Bennett
1927 timeline
City Love (1927) Eric Walrond
Lynching for Profit (1927) George S. Schuyler
Highball (1927) Claude McKay
Game (1927) Eugene Gordon
Masks (1927) Eloise Bibb Thompson
1928 timeline
Bathesda of Sinners Run (1928) Maude Irwin Owens
He Must Think It Out (1928) Florida Ruffin Ridley
Anthropoi (1928) John F. Matheus
1929 timeline
Prologue to a Life (1929) Dorothy West
1930 timeline
Sanctuary (1930) Nella Larsen
Door-Stops (1930) May Miller
Cross Crossings Cautiously (1930) Anita Scott Coleman
1931 timeline
Why Adam Ate the Apple (1931) Mercedes Gilbert
The Needle's Point (1931) J. Saunders Redding
1932 timeline
Crazy Mary (1932) Claude McKay
His Last Day (1932) Chester Himes
1933 timeline
A Summer Tragedy (1933) Arna Bontemps
1934 timeline
Barrel Staves (1934) Arna Bontemps
Why, You Reckon (1934) Langston Hughes
Spanish Blood (1934) Langston Hughes
1935 timeline
John Archer's Nose (1935) Rudolph Fisher
1936 timeline
Mob Madness (1936) Marion Vera Cuthbert
Gesture (1936) Georgia Douglas Johnson
1937 timeline
Pope Pius the Only (1937) Richard Bruce Nugent
Silt (1937) Richard Wright
The Return of a Modern Prodigal (1937) Octavia B. Wynbush
1938 timeline
Hate Is Nothing (1938) Marita Bonner
1939 timeline
The Whipping (1939) Marita Bonner
A Modern Fable (1939) Chester Himes
1940 timeline
A Matter of Record (1940) Ted Poston
Girl, Colored (1940) Marian Minus
Sources for Additional Short Stories by the Authors
Award-Winning Short Fiction from Opportunity and Crisis
Selected Resources for the Harlem Renaissance
A Selected Checklist of Common Issues, Topics, and Plot Components
About the Authors
Author Index
Credits
Craig Gable is an independent scholar and professional librarian. He is a Harlem Renaissance bibliographer and editor of the Rudolph Fisher Newsletter (www.fishernews.org), an online newsletter and general research resource website devoted to Rudolph Fisher and the Harlem Renaissance at large. He lives in Buffalo, New York.
Darryl Dickson-Carr is Associate Professor of English at Florida State University, Tallahassee, and author of African American Satire: The Sacredly Profane Novel and The Columbia Guide to African American Fiction, 1970-2000 (forthcoming). He lives in Tallahassee.