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Yes, I’m being extra with the title, but only a little, because the book I most recently read for one of my book clubs was so good. It literally hooked me from the first page. With my ADHD-addled brain, this is saying a lot. Not only did it suck me right into the Jazz-filled Harlem of the 1920s, it kept me turning pages. With each date listed at the beginning of its chapters, I was eager to see which Jazz Age legend the main character was going to encounter next. I was able to finish it in only a couple of days, which, again, with my attention span and the myriad of other books I have to read for work and other obligations, is saying something.
Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray follows a Black woman who’s been lost to the annals of history, damn near. In 1919, Jessie Redmon Fauset moved from Washington, D.C., to Harlem, leaving a life of teaching behind to become the first Black woman to hold the title of Literary Editor for The Crisis, an NAACP publication, and the historical Black American magazine that was started by W.E.B. Du Bois.
The thing with Jessie Fauset wasn’t just that she was the first Black woman to hold a title like this—she was one of few women to hold a title like that, period. She was also responsible for ushering in the literary component of the Harlem Renaissance. As Literary Editor, it was her job to procure writing to fill the pages of The Crisis, and in doing so, she discovered many great talents who would go on to become literary legends. Through her time at the magazine, she discovered and mentored iconic writers like Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Jean Toomer. She was even great friends with Nella Larsen. Through her literary taste, the popularity of The Crisis soared, and just about every Black American writer wanted to be featured in it. It was because of this that she became known as “the Mid-Wife of the Harlem Renaissance.”
Knowing all this, it’s kind of hard to imagine why her name isn’t more widely known. Well, I guess I should say it is and it isn’t. For one, she was still a woman, and despite all that she had accomplished, there were still some sexist tendencies of the time. It was easy to let the influence of one Black woman—no matter how great it was—fall by the wayside in the decades following her time at the magazine. There isn’t even mention of her name on the NAACP’s official page dedicated to the history of The Crisis magazine.
Secondly, and this will be a source of frustration for you as you read the book, she was having a long-term affair with W.E.B. Du Bois, who was not only her boss but 14 years older than her and married. I can’t imagine whispers of their affair did anything good for her reputation. And while it is undoubtedly unfair for her to bear the brunt of the responsibility for this relationship—which seems to have started before Du Bois became her boss—she still most likely did because of the time.
This brings me to one of my few complaints about the book. Though it, as I mentioned before, made me feel immediately immersed in a Jazz Age Harlem, and the writing felt true to the time while not being overwrought, so much of the storyline seemed to revolve around Jessie’s trifling relationship with W.E.B. For a book and character that emphasized feminism and stressed the importance of women being able to rise above the confines of sexism (and racism), this felt a little odd. I’m not saying that a feminist can’t have an illicit affair with a married man and still be valid in her views of sexism and racism, or even that I don’t like messy, complicated characters. I think I would have just liked to see a little more of Jessie’s story focus on her, her writing (she was a novelist and a poet), and her relationship with the future legendary writers who she mentored.
Still, the Harlem-loving, Harlem Renaissance, and Jazz Age-obsessed side of me absolutely loved this book, and I won’t be surprised to see it listed among a few best-of lists come the end of the year.
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