The Sleeper Wakes: Harlem Renaissance Stories by Women

by Marcy Knopf-Newman

In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in the art and culture of the Harlem Renaissance. Yet this significant collection is the first definitive edition of Harlem Renaissance stories by women. The writers include Gwendolyn Bennett, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Angelina Weld Grimké, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, and Dorothy West.

Published originally in periodicals such as The Crisis , Fire!! , and Opportunity , these twenty-seven stories have until now been virtually unavailable to readers. These stories are as compelling today as they were in the 1920s and 1930s. In them, we find the themes of black and white racial tension and misunderstanding, economic deprivation, passing, love across and within racial lines, and the attempt to maintain community and uplift the race. Marcy Knopf's introduction surveys the history of the Harlem Renaissance, the periodicals and books it generated, and describes the rise to prominence of these women writers and their later fall from fame. She also includes a brief biography of each of the writers. Nellie Y. McKay's foreword analyzes the themes and concerns of the stories.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Literature, Historical

320 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1993

Reviews

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a time in my life where I aspired to become some sort of academic, trawling in the depths of archival research and surfacing just long enough to infect the younger generations with obsessive theorizings and no small amount of anti-kyriarchical fervor. The fact that this was the piece that reminded me of such in a manner that was much less plagued with residual trauma and angsty nostalgia unfortunately had little to do with the quality, judging how the foreword made it past the editors without its final pages and the physical nature of this copy has doomed it to the dumpster bin as soon as I've finished my review (armchair bibliophiles can mewl and puke about the 'sanctity of books' all they like, but here in my public librarian house, we don't fuck around with black mold). Largely, it has to do with the fact that Marcy Knopf, the graduate who spurred the creation of this anthology on to its final published stages, started with a simple principle: collate a selection of stories from Harlem Renaissance periodicals such as The Crisis, Fire!!, Opportunity, and others long consigned to archival microfilm, focusing on women, focusing on those who have not received 'lost classic' treatment by Penguin and co. or even a mention from the publishing lines of the Schomburg Center. From there, you have some names previously read (the short stories of Larsen), some not encountered in short story form (Hurston), some looked forward to (Dunbar-Nelson), some on the periphery of potential interest (Fauset, West), at least one intriguingly queer (Grimké), and the rest of completely new acquaintance. My favorite of the bunch, "Bathesda of Sinners Run", is a perfect example of the ongoing disinterment that powered this project, as while the name of the author is known, Maude Irwin Owens is not one of the names of whom enough was known to include among the biographical portraits at the end of the text. This, however, was a window into scholarship that was opened in 1993, and much has changed in the past thirty years, to the point that searching for Owens amongst the pitiful public offerings of JSTOR and Google Scholar grants enough promising offerings that I trust at least one non-layman or two has been making fruitful inroads in the past few decades. In any case, if you yourself have aspirations of educating yourself about the Harlem Renaissance beyond the pithy placards put out about a bunch of dudes and perhaps that dame Hurston, this is a rather neat collection to stumble across at a book sale. However, if you have the entire span of the Internet at your fingertips and are itching to give Bookshop dot org a go, you can probably find a collection that's a tad more fleshed out and better put together (in editorship, at any rate, if not in intent).

[Karie Schulenburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up because I've read very little Harlem Renaissance authors, and almost no female HR authors, aside from Zora Neale Hurston. So this was a very pleasant education in which I was introduced to lots of talent! My favorite stories were by Leila Amos Pendleton, Nella Larson, and Ottie Beatrice Graham, amongst others.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection by black female writers about life shortly after slave abolition - some humorous and some heartbreaking. Wonderful read.

[Kelly Is Brighid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent short stories by Harlem Renaissance Women. I particularly enjoyed those penned by Dorothy West, Marita Bonner, Angelina Weld Grimke’, Nella Larsen, and the maestra herself - Zora Neale Hurston.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impressive collection of women writers of the Harlem Renaissance