Jean Toomer was born into an elite black family in Washington, D.C. in 1894. Abandoned by his father as a newborn and losing his mother to appendicitis as a teenager, Toomer spent his formative years in the home of his grandparents, P.B.S. and Nina Pinchback.
Considering this, what influenced Jean Toomer?
Toomer wrote extensively from 1935 to 1940 about relationships between the genders, influenced by his Gurdjieff studies, as well as Jungian psychology. He had fundamentally traditional views about men and women, which he put in symbolic terms.
Also Know, how did Jean Toomer become involved in the Harlem Renaissance?
He met a principal of a small black school in Sparta, Georgia, who needed someone to manage his school for a short time. In the fall of 1921, he accepted this position. This temporary position gave him the opportunity to study the culture and the people of the rural south and to discover his black roots.
What race was Jean Toomer?
Toomer was of European and African American ancestry, which sometimes allowed him to pass in society as a white man. For example, his registration for the draft identifies him as African American, but both of his certificates of marriage to white women list him as white (Byrd and Gates).
What did Jean Toomer write about?
There he formally joined the Quakers and began to withdraw from society. Toomer wrote extensively from 1935 to 1940 about relationships between the genders, influenced by his Gurdjieff studies, as well as Jungian psychology. He had fundamentally traditional views about men and women, which he put in symbolic terms.