Born: 27 April 1882, United States
Died: 30 April 1961
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Jessie Redmona Fause
The following is republished from the Library of Congress. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/naacp/the-new-negro-movement.html
Jessie Fauset (1882–1961) was reared in Philadelphia by her widowed father, a highly respected minister. A gifted student, she attended Cornell, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa; the University of Pennsylvania; and the Sorbonne. She taught high school French and Latin before Du Bois hired her to work at The Crisis. As the literary editor (1919–1926) she introduced many Harlem Renaissance writers, including Langston Hughes and Jean Toomer, to the public. While with The Crisis, she also coedited The Brownies’ Book (1920–1921), a monthly children’s magazine. One of the Harlem Renaissance’s most prolific authors, Fauset contributed numerous short stories, poems, reports, reviews, and translations to The Crisis. Her four novels explored the lives of the Talented Tenth.