A Gallery of Harlem Portraits is Melvin B. Tolson's first book-length collection of poems. It was written in the 1930s when Tolson was immersed in the writings of the Harlem Renaissance, the subject of his master's thesis at Columbia University, and will provide scholars and critics a rich insight into how Tolson's literary picture of Harlem evolved. Modeled on Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology and showing the influence of Browning and Whitman, it is rooted in the Harlem Renaissance in its fascination with Harlem's cultural and ethnic diversity and its use of musical forms. Robert M. Farnsworth's afterword elucidates these and other literary influences. Tolson eventually attempted to incorporate the technical achievements of T.S. Eliot and the New Criticism into a complex modern poetry which would accurately represent the extraordinary tensions, paradoxes, and sophistication, both highbrow and lowbrow, of modern Harlem. As a consequence his position in literary history is problematical. The publication of this earliest of his manuscripts will help clarify Tolson's achievement and surprise many of his readers with its readily accessible, warmly human poetic portraiture. "A very valuable contribution to the relatively sparse literary scholarship about a poet whom other poets have praised highly for his achievements in poetry, and about a poem for which there is far too little critical commentary."— MELUS About the Author Born in Moberly, Missouri, Melvin B. Tolson (1898-1966) was one of the outstanding poets of the twentieth century, the author of three books of poetry as well as several novels, dramas, one-act plays, and a newspaper column. A Professor of English and Drama at Langston University, Langston, Oklahoma from 1947 to 1965, Tolson's work won the Annual Poetry Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1966. About the Editor Robert M. Farnsworth is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He has published numerous scholarly articles and poems and is co-editor of Richard Wright : Impressions and Perspectives . A Gallery of Harlem Portraits By Melvin B. Tolson, Robert M. Farnsworth University of Missouri Press Copyright © 1979 The Curators of the University of Missouri All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8262-0280-2 Contents Chiaroscuro, Harlem, Gloomy Dean, Miss Eulaline Briffault, Diamond Canady, African China, Nig Grinde, Abraham Dumas, Deacon Phineas Bloom, Aunt Tommiezene, Reverend Thomas Brazeale, Senola Hurse, Sootie Joe, Fritz Rickman, Sadie Mulberry, Biffo Lightfoote, Lady Hope, Black Zuleika, Babe Quest, Francis Keats, Grand Chancellor Knapp Sackville, Editor Crum, Stillicho Spikes, Peg Leg Snelson, Frederick Judson, Chittling Sue, Doc Brockenbury, Poker Face Duncan, Sarah Ashton, Daddy Oldfield, Margaret Levy, Jacob Nollen, Miss Felicia Babcock, Grandma Lonigan, Sister Slemp, Silhouettes, Hester Pringle, David Letts, Rhoda Stacpoole, Napoleon Hannibal Speare, Pat Frost, Lovie Long, Sparky Zigsmith, Enloe Penn, James Killmer, Noble Fetchit, Mammy Tyler, Prince Banmurji, Etchings, Jake Bunner, Pearl Tripplett, The Biggest Fool in Harlem, Faith Hanley, Carrie Green, Horace Allyn, Dr. Cram Mifflin, Uncle Rufus, Okay Katie, Mrs. Ernest Quirk, Grandma Grady, Richmond Hoover, Old Man Salem, Dr. Harvey Whyte, Victor Garibaldi, Lena Lovelace, Sergeant Tiffin, Augustus Lence, Zip Lightner, Old Pettigrew, Uncle Walt, Juarez Mary, Isidor Lawson, Chef Sam Logan, Hamuel Gutterman, Ferenc Glaspell, Laura Yost, Uriah Houze, Sidney Sippel, Mrs. Gertrude Beamish, Vergil Ragsdale, Jobyna Dear, Jack D'Orsay, Mrs. Josephine Wise, Willie Byrd, Flora Murdock, Maizelle Millay, Big Fred Railer, The Stranger, Damon Akerman, Black Moses, Uncle Gropper, Polly Trotter, Joshua Granite, Madame Alpha Devine, Mrs. Edith Parker, Officer John Cushwa, Steve Wordsworth, Jack Patterson, Big Bessie, Ralph Farrell, Pastels, Jesse Seegar, Dave Zachary, Tubby Laughton, Crip MacKay, Elbert Hartman, Festus Conrad, Bowyer Bragg, Winged Feet Cooper, Nutty Al Moon, Harold Lincoln, Ray Rosenfeld, Whirlwind Cotton, Big Shot Lacy, Percy Longfellow, Sterling the Artist, Doctor James, Judge Crimpton, Nottley the Embalmer, Mrs. Marcella Loften, Richard Birch, Aunt Hagar, Little Nellie Patmore, Mother Vibbard, Miss Emile Housman, The Honorable Eutaw Lamb, Simon Southorn, Aunt Martha, Ivory Frysinger, Alexander Calverton, Silent Sam, Duke Huggins, Reverend Isaiah Cloud, Ezra Crane, Big Jim Casey, Freida Maynard, Xavier van Loon, Marzimmu Heffner, Gladys Zimmerman, Freemon Hawthorne, Laughing Jim, Goldie Keats, Hilmar Enick, Uncle Twitty, Bella Scarritt, Edna Borland, Slick Gunnar, Frank Fullilove, Nana Swancy, Uncle Lash, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Wu Shang, Tito Crouch, Sylvia Wiggins, Lionel Bushman, Stanley de Weerd, Michael Ra