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A Disciple's Odyssey: Jean Toomer's Gurdjieffian Career*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2009

Robert C. Twombly
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Extract

Nineteen twenty-three was a momentous year in Jean Toomer's life. The publication of Cane, a cluster of thematically related sketches, stories, and poems about black people in Georgia and Washington, D.C., signaled his emergence as a talented young writer whom many associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Later in the year Toomer discovered the teachings of Georgi Gurdjieff, whose Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man was becoming internationally famous. While Cane was emerging as a minor classic during the 1920s, Toomer devoted himself to Gurdjieff, creating confusions about his loyalties that never ceased to plague him. Although his Gurdjieffian connection is well known, it is rarely taken seriously, and even today Toomer is usually discussed only as a “black” writer. Perhaps for a while he was, but his youthful fascination with race for its own sake slowly evolved into a racially conscious, then a radically unconscious, universalism. In that process, Gurdjieffian teachings were the catalyst, and it was clear to Toomer that his involvement with the “movement”—not race—was the defining quality of his life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Prospects , Volume 2 , October 1977 , pp. 437 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

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References

NOTES

1. Undated and untitled manuscript, Box 53, Jean Toomer Collection, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee. Hereafter, unless otherwise noted, all Toomer manuscripts and correspondence are from the Toomer Collection at Fisk.

2. Du Bois, W. E. B., Black Reconstruction in America, 1860–1880 (1935: rpt. Cleveland: World Publishing Co., 1964), p. 469Google Scholar. Also see E. L. Thornbrough, ed., Black Reconstructionists (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1972), p. 176.

3. Fullinwinder, S. P., The Mind and Mood of Black America (Homewood, ill.: Dorsey Press, 1969), p. 138.Google Scholar

4. Toomer, to Barnett, Claud, 04 29, 1923.Google Scholar

5. Fullinwinder, , Mind and Mood, p. 138.Google Scholar

6. Green, Constance McL., The Secret City: A History of Race Relations in the Nations Capital (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univ. Press, 1967), p. 200.Google Scholar

7. For biographical material on Toomer, see Fullinwinder, , Mind and Mood, pp. 137–44Google Scholar; Who's Who in America, 1932–1933: Who's Who in Colored America (1927).Google Scholar

8. Undated manuscript, “Why 1 Entered the Gurdjieff Work,” p. 17.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., p. 28.

10. Toomer, to Frank, Waldo, 1923Google Scholar, quoted in Toomer, , “Outline of Autobiography,” p. 55.Google Scholar

11. Durham, Frank, “The Only Negro Member of the Poetry Society of South Carolina,” in Durham, Frank, ed., The Merrill Studies in Cane (Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Co., 1971), p. 13.Google Scholar

12. Scruggs, Charles, “Jean Toomer: Fugitive,” American Literature, 47 (03 1975), 84–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13. Quoted in Turner, Darwin, In a Minor Chord: Three Afro-Americans and Their Search for Identity (Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1971), p. 32.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., pp. 36–37.

15. Toomer, to McClure, John, 06 30, 1922.Google Scholar

16. Toomer, to Barnett, Claud, 04 29, 1923.Google Scholar

17. Toomer, to McKay, Claude, 08 19, 1922.Google Scholar

18. Toomer, to Frank, Waldo, 1923Google Scholar, quoted in Toomer, , “Outline.”Google Scholar

19. “Why I Entered the Gurdjieff Work,” pp. 27–28.Google Scholar

20. Toomer, to Frank, Waldo, 1923Google Scholar, quoted in Toomer, , “Outline.”Google Scholar

21. Toomer, to Johnson, James Weldon, 07 4, 1930.Google Scholar

22. Toomer, to Cunard, Nancy, 02 8, 1932Google Scholar. On Cunard, see McKay, Claude, A Long Way from Home (1937; rpt. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1970), pp. 342–45.Google Scholar

23. Entries for September 20 and October 19, 1929, in notebook 13 (a journal), Box 69.

24. Bone, Robert, The Negro Novel in America, rev. ed. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1965), p. 81.Google Scholar

25. Fisher, Alice Poindexter, “The Influence of Ouspensky's Tertium Organum upon Jean Toomer's Cane”, CLA Journal, 17 (06 1974), 504–15Google Scholar. Most of this issue is devoted to Toomer.

26. On Toomer's early contacts with Orage and Gurdjieff, see “Why I Entered the Gurdjieff Work”; untitled manuscript beginning “Sennez-Forle” on arriving at the Institute; and the material on Gurdjieff, including Toomer's membership certificate, in folder 7, Box 67.

27. Quoted in Turner, , In a Minor Chord, p. 37.Google Scholar

28. Much of the material in this section is distilled from Anderson, Margaret, The Unknowable Gurdjieff (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1962)Google Scholar: Peters, Fritz, Boyhood with Gurdjieff (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1964)Google Scholar; de Hartmann, Thomas, Our Life with Mr. Gurdjieff (London: Cooper Square Publishers, 1964)Google Scholar; [Note, C. S.], Teachings of Gurdjieff: The Journal of a Pupil (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1962)Google Scholar; and Perry, Whitall N., “Gurdjieff in the Light of Tradition,” Studies in Comparative Religion, 8 (1974), 211–39Google Scholar. Also, see my “Organic Living: Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship and Georgi Gurdjieff's Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man,” Wisconsin Magazine of History, 58 (Winter 1974–1975), 126–39.Google Scholar

29. “Portage Potentials: An Adventure in Human Development,” p. 61Google Scholar, Toomer's unpublished account of the 1931 experiment, discussed in section VI, below.

30. Peters, , Boyhood, pp. 26, 152, and passim.Google Scholar

31. Hoffman, Maud, “Taking the Life Cure in Gurdjieff's School,” New York Times, 02 10, 1924, Sec. 7, p. 13.Google Scholar

32. Peters, Fritz, Gurdjieff Remembered (1965; rpt. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1971), pp. 126–27.Google Scholar

33. Editorial introduction to Bechhofer, C. E., “The Forest Philosophers,” Century, 108 (05 1924), 66.Google Scholar

34. Hughes, Langs ton, The Big Sea (1940: rpt. New York: Hill & Wang, 1963), p. 241.Google Scholar

35. Toomer, to Gurdjieff, , n. d. [126]Google Scholar; de Hartmann, Olga to Toomer, , 02 11, 1926Google Scholar. Also, see folder dated 1926, Box 66, notes entitled “A New Group” regarding New York City meetings.

36. On their first week in the cottage, see “Portage Potentials,” pp. 1–38Google Scholar; Latimer, to Dupee, Yvonne and to Rakosi, Carl, 06 1931Google Scholar. Unless otherwise noted, Margery Latimer's letters are in the Toomer Collection at Fisk.

37. Biographical information on Latimer was obtained from Who's Who in America, 1930–1931; 1932–1933; interview with Green, Katharine, Portage, Wisconsin, 03 21, 22, 1975Google Scholar; and letters from Stimson, Rachel L. (Latimer's sister) to McCarthy, Daniel P., 10 1 and November 10, 1974Google Scholar, and to the author, September 23, 1975.

38. Gale, Zona, letter to the editor, New York Times, 03 1, 1924Google Scholar; Orage, A. R. to Latimer, , 11 18, 21, December 19, 1924Google Scholar; March 5, 1925, Katharine Green Collection, Portage, Wisconsin; Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975.Google Scholar

39. Latimer, to Ware, Ruth, 07 5, 1931.Google Scholar

40. “Portage Potentials,” pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

41. Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975Google Scholar; “Portage Potentials,” pp. 97–98Google Scholar; Milwaukee Sentinel, 03 20, 21, 1932.Google Scholar

42. Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975Google Scholar, from which much of the information on the experiment comes.

43. Ibid.; “Portage Potentials,” p. 68.Google Scholar

44. Latimer, to Le Sueur, Meridel, 08 9, September, October, 1931.Google Scholar

45. Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975Google Scholar; statements from participants appended to “Portage Potentials.”

46. Ibid., pp. 259, 260, 263, 304.

47. Portage (Wisconsin), Register-Democrat, 07 13, 1931Google Scholar, includes the text of the Toomer speech.

48. “Portage Potentials,” pp. 230–233Google Scholar, includes undated Madison and Milwaukee newspaper clippings on the experiment; Register-Democrat, 07 31, 1931.Google Scholar

49. Latimer, to Le Sueur, Meridel, 10, 1931Google Scholar; Milwaukee Journal, 10 24, 1931.Google Scholar

50. Register-Democrat, 10 24, 31, 1931.Google Scholar

51. Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975.Google Scholar

52. Latimer, to Rakosi, Carl, 10, 1931.Google Scholar

53. Toomer, to Dupee, Yvonne, 03 26, 1932Google Scholar; Register-Democrat, 02 15 and March 9, 1932.Google Scholar

54. Milwaukee, Sentinel, 03 18, 20, 21, 1932Google Scholar; Latimer, to Le Sueur, Meridel, 03 1932Google Scholar. Also, see “Just Americans,” Time, 19 (03 28, 1932)Google Scholar; Capital Times (Madison, Wis.), 03 21, 1932Google Scholar; Wisconsin News (Milwaukee), 03 17, 19, 1932.Google Scholar

55. Milwaukee, Sentinel, 03 20, 1932Google Scholar; Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975.Google Scholar

56. Same as note 55; Turner, , In a Minor Chord, pp. 50–51Google Scholar; Latimer, to Kelm, Karlton, 09 3, 1931.Google Scholar

57. Latimer, to Latimer, Laurie B., 04 17, 1932Google Scholar. For the Toomers' interpretation of the entire episode, see Margery, to Roberts, Sara, 03 20Google Scholar, and to Latimer, Laurie B., 03 30, 1932Google Scholar; Jean, to Dupee, Yvonne, 03 26, 1932.Google Scholar

58. Green, Katharine interview, 03 21, 22, 1975Google Scholar; interview with Mrs. George Murison, who attended Toomer, 's lectures, Portage, 03 22, 1975.Google Scholar

59. Ibid.; Register-Democrat and Milwaukee Journal, 08 17, 1932Google Scholar; Capital Times and New York Times, 08 18, 1932Google Scholar; Holmes, John Haynes to Toomer, , 11 23, 1933Google Scholar, Katharine Green Collection.

60. Toomer, to Gurdjieff, , 08 16, 1934.Google Scholar

61. Toomer, to Dupee, Yvonne, 11 25, 1934.Google Scholar

62. Anderson, Paul E. to Toomer, , 01 31, 1949Google Scholar: undated manuscript on Gurdjieff, Box 53.

63. Toomer's activities after 1934 have been reconstructed from letters to the author from Marjorie Content Toomer, from assorted manuscripts in boxes marked Gurdjieff in the Toomer Collection, and from an interview on May 1, 1975, with Mrs. William J. Welch, a New York Gurdjieffian.

64. Toomer, to Smith, Harrison, 09 1933Google Scholar; undated manuscript on Gurdjieff, Box 53.

65. Marjorie Content Toomer to the author, October 17, 1975.

66. MrsWelch, William J. interview, 05 I, 1975.Google Scholar