Dorothy West

Dorothy West (June 2, 1907 – August 16, 1998) was an American novelist and short-story writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She was one of the few Black women writers to be published in major literary magazines in the 1930s and 1940s. She is best known for her 1948 novel The Living Is Easy, as well as other short stories and essays, about the life of an upper-class black family.

For the American actress, see Dorothy West (actress). For the American country music singer and songwriter, see Dottie West.
Dorothy West
Born(1907-06-02)June 2, 1907
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
DiedAugust 16, 1998(1998-08-16) (aged 91)
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • short story writer
  • columnist
Notable worksThe Living Is Easy (1948);
The Wedding (1995)

Overview

Dorothy West was a renowned American writer, known for her short stories and novels that explored the complexities of the black experience in the United States. Born on June 2, 1907, West rose to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in the 1920s and 1930s that celebrated black art, literature, and music. She is best known for her 1948 novel, The Living Is Easy, which tells the story of an upper-class black family and their attempts to climb the social ladder.

In addition to this, West wrote numerous short stories and essays that challenged stereotypes and explored themes such as race, class, and gender. Her work paved the way for future generations of African American writers, and her legacy continues to inspire and influence writers today.

Early life and education

Dorothy West was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the daughter of Rachel Benson, one of 22 children, and Isaac Christopher West, a former slave who became a successful businessman. At the age of seven, Dorothy's father gained his freedom and at ten, he saved enough money in a cigar box to establish his own business. When Dorothy was born, her family was already the most affluent black household in Boston, thanks to Isaac West's ownership of a wholesale fruit company, which earned him the nickname "Black Banana King" of Boston [2]. Her mother was from Camden, South Carolina. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother moved the family to Harlem, New York, in search of better opportunities. West attended Girls' High School in Brooklyn, New York, and then enrolled in Boston University's School of Journalism, but she dropped out after a year to pursue a career in writing.

Also, the poet Helene Johnson was her cousin.[5] Late in life she wrote that in Boston Blacks "were taught very young to take the white man in stride or drown in their own despair [3]". She detailed how her mother guided her and her many cousins, all with varied skin tones, into the inhospitable world [4]:

"We were always stared at. Whenever we went outside the neighborhood that knew us, we were inspected like specimens under glass. My mother prepared us. As she marched us down out front stairs, she would say what our smiles were on tiptoe to hear, "Come on, children, let's go out and drive the white folks crazy." She said it without rancor, and she said it in that outrageous way to make us laugh. She was easing our entry into a world that outranked and outnumbered us. If she could not help us see ourselves with the humor, however wry, that gives the heart its grace, she would never have forgiven herself for letting our spirits be crushed before we had learned to sheathe them with pride."

Career

West began her writing career as a teenager, publishing stories in the Boston Post and the Boston Chronicle. West reportedly wrote her first story at the age of seven. Her first published work, a short story entitled "Promise and Fulfillment", appeared in The Boston Post when she was 14 years old [5].

As a child, West became interested in writing after seeing an advertisement for a writing contest in the NAACP's magazine Crisis. Her mother, who wanted to protect her daughter from the news in the magazine [4], inadvertently inspired her daughter to pursue her passion for writing. West won several local writing competitions,, and eventually attended Girls' Latin School (now called Boston Latin Academy), where she graduated at 16. she went then on to study at Boston University and the Columbia University School of Journalism[6].

In 1926, she tied for second place in a writing contest sponsored by Opportunity, a journal published by the National Urban League, with her short story "The Typewriter". She tied with who was future novelist Zora Neale Hurston[7]. "The Typewriter” appeared in Dodd Mead's annual anthology The Best Short Stories of 1926 alongside work by Ernest Hemingway, Ring Lardner, and Robert Sherwood.[8]

Between 1928 and 1930, some of West's other early writings were published in the Saturday Evening Quill, a short-lived annual literary magazine that grew out of a literary club of the same name, of which West was a founding member.[9]

Actress

West took a break from writing to pursue acting for a few years. In 1927, she applied for a playwright role in the original production of Porgy and Bess but was offered a small acting part instead. The opera ran for three months in London, where West traveled with the production in 1929. In June 1932, she joined other Harlem Renaissance intellectuals on a trip to the Soviet Union to film Black and White, about racism in the US [11][12].[1] Although the film project was cancelled shortly before their arrival, West decided to stay in the Soviet Union for a year, returning home only after her father's death [1].

The film provided material for a 1985 essay that described her encounter with the film director Sergei Eisenstein[13].[7]The film was abandoned by the Russians, and she returned to the United States after a year when she learned of the death of her father.[14]

Harlem Renaissance
Main article: Harlem Renaissance

Shortly before winning the Opportunity writing contest, West moved to Harlem with her cousin, the poet Helene Johnson. She became involved in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and was a member of the literary and artistic community centered around the Harlem Writers Guild. There West met other writers of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and the novelist Wallace Thurman.

In 1926, she co-founded the literary magazine Fire, which featured the work of Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and other prominent Black writers.

During the Great Depression, West's principal contribution to the Harlem Renaissance was to publish the magazine Challenge, which she founded with $40 in 1934, the final issue being published in spring 1937[7]. It was in 1934 that she returned to Harlem and began writing again, after her pause. She honed her writing skills and developed her literary style under the mentorship of Carl Van Vechten, who was a white writer, journalist, and music critic associated with the Harlem Renaissance [1][7].

During the late 1930s, West served as editor for two magazines, Challenge and New Challenge, in an effort to provide a platform for young black artists. From 1938 to the early 1940s, she worked as a welfare investigator in Harlem, and then became a regular contributor to the New York Daily News. In 1945, West relocated to Martha's Vineyard, where she had many childhood memories. There, she began writing her novel, The Living is Easy, which was published in 1948. West's written works, including novels, short stories, and periodicals, addressed issues surrounding African American life and black political and social matters. Her writing was influenced by her experiences with racism during her schooling and work in Harlem, as well as her time spent acting overseas. In 1995, West released her second novel, The Wedding, which was later adapted into a two-part miniseries by Oprah Winfrey in 1998 [1].

In the 1930s and 1940s, West's short stories were published in magazines such as Opportunity and The Crisis, and she became a regular contributor to The New Yorker. Her first novel, The Living Is Easy, was published in 1948 and was based on her experiences growing up in a middle-class Black family in Boston. Her second novel, The Wedding, was published in 1995, nearly 50 years after her first, and explores themes of race, class, and gender in a multiracial society.

West was quoted as saying, in 1995: "we didn't know it was the Harlem Reinassance, because we were all young and all poor.[10]" Hughes, then, gave West the nickname of "The Kid", by which she was knowing during her time in Harlem.

Novelist and journalist
Dorothy West in 1981

After struggling as a magazine publisher, West found secure employment with the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project until the mid-1940s. During this time she wrote a number of short stories for the New York Daily News, where she was the first black writer published [15]. In 1947 she moved to her family's home in Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, where she had previously spent summers. There she wrote her first novel, The Living Is Easy. Featuring an ironic sense of humor unique to West's style, the story chronicles the life of a southern woman in pursuit of an upper-class lifestyle in Boston. One 21st-century assessment said it "satirizes the Black bourgeoisie"[15]. Published in 1948, the novel was well received critically but did not sell many copies. In The New York Times, Seymour Krimdescribed it as "a housewifey novel: a look at life from the kitchen and the parlor", focused on characters who were women first and secondarily Black. He wrote: "The important thing about the book is its abundant and special woman's energy and beat. The beat is a deep one and it often makes a man's seem puny."[16]

For the next four decades, West worked as a journalist, primarily writing for a small newspaper on Martha's Vineyard. In 1948, she started a weekly column about Oak Bluffs people, events, and nature. In 1982, The Feminist Press brought The Living Is Easy back into print, giving new attention to West and her role in the Harlem Renaissance and she was included in the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby). As a result of this renewed attention, at the age of 85 West finally finished a second novel, entitled The Wedding. Though its action occurs in the course of a weekend on Martha's Vineyard, it recounts the history of an affluent Black family over the course of centuries. She dedicated it to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who late in life was an editor at West's publisher, Doubleday, who had encouraged her to complete it.[17] Published to acclaim in 1995 – the Publishers Weekly review stated: "West's first novel in 45 years is a triumph."[18] – the novel was a best-seller and resulted in the publication of a collection of West's short stories and reminiscences called The Richer, the Poorer. Its thirty selections included eleven pieces not published before. Set on Martha's Vineyard, The Wedding related the multigenerational tale of a well-to-do African-American family. As with a lot of West's writings, the book provided a somewhat satirical look at affluent blacks and related social and racial issues [2].The New York Times reviewer advised the reader to look past West's "weakness for melodrama" in a few instances and enjoy her "naturalist's ear and eye for detail, an unsentimental view of human failings and a clear, crisp narrative style".[3] Oprah Winfrey's production company turned the novel into two-part television miniseries, The Wedding in 1998.[19]

Love Life

Countee Cullen once proposed to her because his father thought it would end his homosexuality[4]. After their trip to Russia, she offered a marriage proposal in writing to Langston Hughes, who declined [15].

Last years and death

Documentary filmmaker Salem Mekuria used West as one of the principal sources for her half-hour study of the Black community on Martha's Vineyard, Our Place in the Sun (1988), and then created a biographical study As I Remember It: A Portrait of Dorothy West (1991). Both received Emmy nominations.[20][21]

After her re-emergence as a writer, she was a celebrated figure on the Vineyard. Guests at her 90th birthday party included Henry Louis Gates Jr., Anita Hill, Jessye Norman and Charles Ogletree.[22]

Two years before she died, West won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement. [5]

West died on August 16, 1998, at the age of 91, at the New England Medical Center in Boston. Though her cause of death was never officially released, it is thought that she died of natural causes. At her death, she was one of the last surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance. When asked what she wanted her legacy to be, she responded: "That I hung in there. That I didn't say I can't."[17]

Legacy

Dorothy West is remembered as one of the most important writers of the Harlem Renaissance and a pioneer for Black women writers. Her work explored the complexities of Black life in America, and her characters often challenged traditional notions of race, gender, and class. West's writing continues to be celebrated for its insight and originality.

Selected writings
  • The Living Is Easy. Houghton Mifflin Company. 1948; reissued by The Feminist Press, 1982
  • The Wedding. Doubleday Books. 1995. ISBN 978-0-385-47143-5.
  • The Richer, The Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. 1995. ISBN 978-0385471466.
  • Saunders, James Robert; Shackelford, Renae Nadine, eds. (2001). The Dorothy West Martha's Vineyard: Stories, Essays and Reminiscences by Dorothy West Writing in the Vineyard Gazette.
  • Mitchell, Verner D.; Davis, Cynthia, eds. (2004). Where the Wild Grape Grows: Selected Writings, 1930–1950. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9781558494718.
  • Bascom, Lionel C., ed. (2008). The Last Leaf of Harlem: Selected and Newly Discovered Fiction by the Author of The Wedding. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0312261481.

Papers

See also

References
  1. https://www.americanheritage.com/black-and-white-and-red
  2. Harris, Trudier, ed. (1988), Afro-American Writers, 1940–1955, Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 76, Detroit: Gale Research Co., p. 195, ISBN 0810345544
Sources
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