Bücher von Wallace Thurman

2020 Reprint of the 1932 Edition. Thurman is perhaps best known for this novel, which is a satire of what he believed were the overrated creative figures of the Harlem scene. Some reviewers welcomed Thurman's bold insight, while others vilified him as a racial traitor. A thinly disguised memoir of Thurman's own experiences in the 1920s. "[This novel] centers on the larger-than-life denizens of a Harlem mansion called "Niggeratti Manor": The Novel pokes fun at a few famous writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes. Thurman weaves a hilarious story that critiques the paternalistic Negro author/white patron relationship, uncovers the social-class antagonisms in the Afro-American community, and foreshadows the sexual and social themes of James Baldwin and E. Lynn Harris. Thurman's elegant and elastic prose adds more illumination to this bright period in African American literature. --Eugene Holley Jr.at Amazon.com."This delightful roman à clef about the Harlem Renaissance reflects . . . many of the competing notions of its time - between the masses and individuality, between art and uplift, between civilization and primitivism, between separatism and assimilation." - Kirkus Reviews

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Illustrated Edition. Facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Fire!! was an African-American literary magazine published in New York City in 1926 during the Harlem Renaissance. The publication was started by Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, John P. Davis, Richard Bruce Nugent, Gwendolyn Bennett, Lewis Grandison Alexander, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes. After it published one issue, its quarters burned down, and the magazine ended. This issue is the only one published by the journal. Fire!! was conceived to express the African-American experience during the Harlem Renaissance in a modern and realistic fashion, using literature as a vehicle of enlightenment. The magazine's founders wanted to express the changing attitudes of younger African Americans. In Fire!! they explored controversial issues in the Black community, such as homosexuality, bisexuality, interracial relationships, promiscuity, prostitution, and color prejudice.Langston Hughes wrote that the name was intended to symbolize their goal "to burn up a lot of the old, dead conventional Negro-white ideas of the past ... into a realization of the existence of the younger Negro writers and artists, and provide us with an outlet for publication not available in the limited pages of the small Negro magazines then existing." The magazine's headquarters burned to the ground shortly after it published its first issue, ending its operations.Contents: Cover designs / Aaron Douglas -- Foreword -- Drawing / Richard Bruce -- Cordelia the crude, a Harlem sketch / Wallace Thurman -- Color struck, a play in four scenes / Zora Neale Hurston -- Flame from the dark tower -- a section of poetry. From the dark tower / Countée Cullen ; A Southern road / Helene Johnson ; Jungle taste ; Finality / Edward Silvera ; The death bed / Waring Cuney ; Elevator boy ; Railroad avenue / Langston Hughes ; Length of moon / Arna Bontemps ; Little Cinderella ; Streets / Lewis Alexander -- Drawing / Richard Bruce -- Wedding day, a story / Gwendolyn Bennett -- Three drawings / Aaron Douglas -- Smoke, lilies and jade, a novel, part I / Richard Bruce -- Sweet, a story / Zora Neale Hurston -- Intelligentsia, an essay / Arthur Huff Fauset -- Fire burns, editorial comments / Wallace Thurman -- Incidental art decorations / Aaron Douglas.

Emma Lou was born black. Too black for her own comfort and that of her social-climbing wannabe family. Resented by those closest to her, she runs from her small hometown to Los Angeles and then to Harlem of the 1920's, seeking her identity and an escape from the pressures of the black community. She drifts from one loveless relationship to another in the search for herself and a place in a society where prejudice towards her comes not only from whites, but from her own race!¿This novel, associated with the Harlem Renaissance, is considered groundbreaking for its exploration of colorism and racial discrimination within the black community, where lighter skin was often favored, especially for women.