By Jim Heffernan
This 2026 book is historical fiction, but I think it sticks very close to the actual history. It’s the story of Jessie Fauset and her time as the literary editor of “The Crisis” from 1920-1926. “The Crisis” was the magazine that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) started publishing at its founding in 1910.
Jessie graduated from Cornell in 1905 and was the second black woman to be accepted into the Phi Beta Kappa society in 1905. She became a high school teacher and in 1914 she met W.E.B. DuBois and began an affair with him. DuBois was a principal founder of the NAACP in 1910. In 1914, Jessie was 32 and DuBois was 49.
Five years into their affair, W.E.B. Du Bois (Will) hires her as literary editor of “The Crisis” and she moves to Harlem with her mother. Her mother is the widow of a clergyman and her affair with Will creates a constant tension between them. Their affair is a thin secret that also generates strife with the staff of “The Crisis” and with Nina, Will’s wife.
Harlem in the early 20’s is a magnet for “the great migration” of blacks coming north for a better life. Theater, music, dance and literature blossomed in what was know as the “Harlem Renaissance. Jessie made a huge contribution to the literature of the period.
She introduced the poets and authors Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Nella Larsen, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Anne Spencer, George Schuyler, Arna Bontemps, and Langston Hughes. Many of them she discovered when they were teenagers. Nella, Langston and Jean are characters in the book. Langston Hughes will credit Jessie with being the “midwife of the Harlem literary Renaissance”.
At 395 pages it may seem a long book, but was an easy read. The writing is good and the tension of the times and the situation pulled me along.
Book is available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita and Tillamook County Library.
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com