Dorothy West

• Born: June 2, 1907
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: August 16, 1998
• Place of death: Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts

Writer

West was a writer of the Harlem Renaissance and the period after it whose first novel, The Living Is Easy, was published in 1948. She also was a short-story writer, editor, and journalist who published two short-lived literary magazines highlighting the work of black writers.

Areas of achievement: Journalism and publishing; Literature

Early Life

Dorothy West was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1907 to Rachel Pease Benson and Isaac Christopher West. Her father, a man of great ambition, was a former slave from Virginia who saved until he could start his own business. His success eventually made the Wests one of the wealthiest African American families in Boston. West enjoyed a privileged upbringing and ample education. At the age of two, she began her formal education with a tutor, Bessie Trotter. At four, she became a student at the Farragut School; she was capable of doing second-grade work. She completed elementary school at the Matin School in the Mission District of Boston.

By the time West was seven, she had decided that she wanted to become a writer. Her father wanted her to become a businesswoman, while her mother wanted her to be a musician. However, her precocious writing talent was evidenced when, at the age of fourteen, her short story “Promise and Fulfillment” was published in The Boston Post. She became a regular contributor to the paper and a recipient of several of its literary awards. West completed her high school education at the prestigious Girl’s Latin School in Boston, where she graduated in 1923 before continuing her studies at Boston University and at Columbia University, where she studied journalism.

In 1926, West’s short story “The Typewriter” tied for second place in an Opportunity magazine contest with a story by Zora Neale Hurston. West and her cousin, Helene Johnson, traveled to New York for the magazine’s awards ceremony, a move that began West’s long association with Harlem.

Life’s Work

The early years of West’s writing career were difficult. She struggled to get her work published and to attract readers, black or white. She did, however, contribute to The Martha’s Vineyard Gazette, and two stories she wrote during the late 1920’s were published in The Saturday Evening Quill, a black publication. To supplement her income, West took a job as an extra in the original production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, performing both on Broadway and in London. The Great Depression was taking its toll on many Americans, and in 1932, West traveled with a group of some twenty African American intellectuals to Russia with the intention of producing a film on the subject of racism in the United States. When they arrived, they discovered that the film had been canceled. Although she was disappointed, West liked Russia and remained there for more than a year, returning after she learned of her father’s death.

On her return, West took the bold step of using her savings to found the literary magazine The Challenge. The Harlem Renaissance was fading amid the Depression, and West sought to rekindle some of the excitement of that era. Her goal was to publish works by established writers and to introduce new and younger ones. In the six issues of the magazine, the first goal was met, but most of the submissions by new writers did not meet the magazine’s standards, and publication ceased in 1937. Later that year, West and Richard Wright cofounded The New Challenge, but it lasted only one issue.

After the magazines failed, West became a welfare relief worker in Harlem. Accustomed to affluence, she was shocked at the living conditions she found. Her short story “Mammy” reflected this experience. In 1940, West got a job with the Works Progress Administration’s Writers’ Project. During this time, she wrote a number of stories and began a long association with The New York Daily News, publishing more than two dozen stories. She also contributed to several other magazines. Her first novel, The Living Is Easy, about the life of an upper-class African American family, was published in 1948.

West spent the next several decades working as a journalist on Martha’s Vineyard. Thanks in part to the encouragement of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, West’s second novel, The Wedding, was published in 1995 when she was eighty-five. West died on August 16, 1998, at the age of ninety-one.

Significance

While West’s identification with the Harlem Renaissance provided visibility and important connections, her first novel, published in 1948 after the decline of the Harlem Renaissance, helped renew interest in the work of black writers. When The Living Is Easy was reissued in 1982, the novel drew the interest of a new generation of readers who interpreted her work from a feminist perspective.

Bibliography

Jones, Sharon L. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race, Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West. Contributions in Afro-American and African Studies 207. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. Examines the work of West, Hurston, and Fauset and contends that all three writers challenged racial, gender, and class repression.

Kramer, Victor A., ed. The Harlem Renaissance Reexamined. New York: AMS Press, 1987. Contains a section dealing with the cultural context of the Harlem Renaissance and a section of essays on the art of specific writers, including West.

Russell, Sandi. Render Me My Songs: African-American Women Writers from Slavery to the Present. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1991. Includes a profile of West covering her biography, writings, and their cultural impact.

West, Dorothy. The Richer, The Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences. New York: Doubleday, 1995. Offers an interesting look at West’s writing and life in her own words.