Infants of the Spring (Harlem Renaissance) [Paperback]

Wallace Thurman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 26, 1999 | Series: Harlem Renaissance (Book 2)

Modern Library Harlem Renaissance

It's 1920s Harlem, and man, the joint is jumpin'. Folks are coming and going and everything's copacetic as long as the gin keeps flowing. This is the scene Stephen Jorgenson dives into when he arrives from Canada for the first time. He is taken to "The Niggerati Manor," an apartment building in Harlem inhabited by aspiring artists whose  true talents lie in living, and where everything's black and white--with a lot of grayness in between. Counterbalancing Stephen's embrace of these folks is Raymond Taylor, a writer who is the only truly talented artist in the manor. Raymond's cynical take on the "new Negro artist" is the tightrope he walks between the love and hatred of himself and his people. Characters representing Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke all appear, and part of the fun of this book is figuring out who's who.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This little-known classic of the Harlem Renaissance--by the mysterious, Utah-born bisexual Wallace Thurman, who died in obscurity in 1934--is both timeless and timely. It centers on the larger-than-life denizens of a Harlem mansion called "Niggeratti Manor": Stephen Jorgensen, the recently arrived Canadian; Paul, the ambivalent, uptown social critic; Pelham, the struggling poet; and Eustace Savoy, an entertainer disdainful of his Afro-American musical heritage. In this volatile gumbo of complex characters--which also pokes fun at a few famous writers, including Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, and Langston Hughes--Thurman weaves a hilarious story that critiques the paternalistic Negro author/white patron relationship, uncovers the social-class antagonisms in the Afro-American community, and foreshadows the sexual and social themes of James Baldwin and E. Lynn Harris. Thurman's elegant and elastic prose adds more illumination to this bright period in African American literature. --Eugene Holley Jr.

From Library Journal

This is the first volume in Modern Library's inaugural series, "The Harlem Renaissance." The 1932 novel is a thinly disguised memoir of Thurman's own unhappy experiences in the 1920s literary movement and features characters based on Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and other Harlem Renaissance authors. With an introduction by author E. Lynn Harris.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (January 26, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375752323
• ISBN-13: 978-0375752322
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,688,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book speaks to you!, September 17, 1999

By 

EarlRandy "earlrandy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Infants of the Spring (Harlem Renaissance) (Paperback)

Thurman was not the most polished of writers, but he makes up that shortcoming by having a lot to say. I was enraptured with the number of ideas present in this book, and many times I paused to consider the weight of his words.

Yes, the text is often clumsy, but the dialogue is sterling. So this is really what the Harlem Renaissance was about? I wish I could have been there. There are so many memorable characters in this book, and they all are real and possess unique personalities. Even the minor characters are fleshed out.

Buy this book and read it. You won't regret it. After reading it, I have only one question: Why isn't Thurman's third novel, INTERNE, available? I can't think of any author to whom to compare Thurman. His dialogue reminds me a bit of Hemingway, but not really. Reading Thurman is a unique experience!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best bad novels written, August 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Infants of the Spring (Harlem Renaissance) (Paperback)

Politically incorrect, pedantic, with laughingly awful flights of "serious writing", this novel nonetheless opens up a window to the past with an immediacy few novels match. Thurman was there and he lets you know how it was. Important both as a historical document and one of the earliest examples of black gay literature, it will fascinate despite the clumsy writing. A window into a lost world if you're willing to forgive the prose.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Knowledge of Harlem Renaissance not required!, December 2, 2003

By 

John (London, London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Infants of the Spring (Lost American Fiction) (Hardcover)

I put off reading this for years because of its leadenly Shakespearian title, and was surprised and pleased to find when I did finally pick it up that it was a pacey, barbed and entertaining read. It's not 'hilarious' (as billed in the promotional blurb above) but it is sharp. In its astute but cynical take on its characters & their situation it made me think of Chester Himes, (& Thurman has a similar 'banged off' style to Himes), & in its subject-matter - black & white bohemia, & the politics of race & sexuality - it's very much a precursor to James Baldwin's 'Another Country'. The debates around the role of the artist, particularly the black artist, in this book seem to me as resonant today as they were when it was written: does a black artist have a duty to represent the race, to engage politically with racial issues in an overt or didactic way, or is his or her duty to art as a force - or truth - in itself? Thurman provides no answers, but he shows how such tensions - combined with self-delusion, brittleness, lack of application and other human failings - lead people who are struggling to be creative to collapse in on themselves, with disastrous results. Thurman's style is jaunty and, although highly engaging, deters the reader from empathising greatly with the characters; yet I found the end of the book, which is on one level camp, strangely moving and upsetting.