Written by Doreen Baingana
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember with the Special English Program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week, we tell about a person who played an important part in the history and culture of the United States. Today, we tell about the writer Dorothy West.
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VOICE ONE:
Dorothy West
Dorothy West's first long book was published when she was more
than forty years old. Her second book was published when she was in her late eighties.
Yet African American poet Langston Hughes called her "The Kid." This means a child. Dorothy West had been one of the youngest members of the group of writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a creative period for African Americans during the nineteen twenties and nineteen thirties.
VOICE TWO:
During and after World War One, thousands of southern blacks moved to northern cities in the United States. They were seeking jobs and better lives. Many settled in an area of New York City known as Harlem. Many were musicians, writers, artists and performers. Harlem became the largest African American community in the United States.
The mass movement from south to north led African Americans to examine their lives: Who were they? What were their rights as Americans? The artistic expression of this collective examination became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Renaissance means rebirth. The Harlem Renaissance represented a re-birth of black people as an effective part of American life.
Dorothy West helped influence the direction and form of African American writing during this time.
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VOICE ONE:
Dorothy West was born in nineteen-oh-seven in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Both her parents were born in the southern United States, and moved north. Her father was a former slave. He became the first African American to own a food-selling company in Boston.
The family became part of the black upper middle class social group of Boston. Dorothy West had private teachers, dancing classes, and holidays on Martha's Vineyard -- an island off the coast of Massachusetts. She studied at Boston University and the Columbia University School of Journalism in New York. Later, she would use her own experiences and observations to write about social class in the black community.
VOICE TWO:
Dorothy West started writing stories at age seven. When she was fourteen, she published her first story in the "Boston Post." After that, she wrote often for that newspaper. In nineteen twenty-six, she won second place in a short story contest by "Opportunity" magazine. Her story was called "The Typewriter." It describes an African American man who hates his real life. He creates a better life for himself -- in his imagination -- in order to help his daughter improve her typing skills.
VOICE ONE:
Dorothy West won second place in the competition with Zora Neale Hurston. Hurston was another famous writer of the Harlem Renaissance. West moved to Harlem, too. She was considered a little sister by Hurston and other writers and poets such as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Wallace Thurman.
Members of the Harlem Renaissance group were very serious about their art. West once told a reporter that they all thought they were going to be the greatest writers in the world.
VOICE TWO:
During this time, Dorothy West wrote a number of short stories. They were published in magazines in and around New York. One story was called "Funeral." Another was called "The Black Dress."
She once said the writer whose work she liked most was the Russian Fyodor Dstoevsky. Experts say some of her work is similar to his. Like Dostoevsky, she wrote about the idea of being saved by suffering. She wrote about unsatisfied people who feel trapped by their environment, or by racism, or because they are female or male.
