Wallace+Thurman.

Wallace Thurman: A Radical Among Radicals By Erin Kaseda



Wallace Thurman was born in Salt Lake City and was raised by his mother and grandmother. He was often very sick as a child, and began writing at the age of ten. After college, he wrote a two year column called “Inklings”, which was his attempt to start a literary group similar to ones that already existed in the East. When that proved impossible, he moved to Harlem and worked half a dozen jobs trying to make his mark in the newspaper business. At one of the newspapers he worked in, he published many of Langston Hughes short stories (PAL Thurman).

After he and Hughes moved in together, he started several magazines, including “Fire!!”which Hughes co-wrote. Each magazine failed to progress beyond the first few editions and left Thurman in great financial debt. During this time he rejected the mainstream literary groups and movements of Harlem, including the Talented Tenth, because he felt that they were not doing anything to change the situation of African Americans and that they shied away from topics very personal to him, such as racism and homosexuality. In his adulthood he wrote three novels and then died of tuberculosis (Literature).

The Last Citadel

There is an old brick house in Harlem Way up Fifth Avenue; With a long green yard and windows barred It stands silent, salient, Unconquered by the surrounding black horde.

This poem is obviously directly related to the Harlem Renaissance in its reference to Harlem itself. I think that this poem follows the pattern of Forward to Fire in that it is talking about how a new generation of people is needed to fight for what the older generation will not. The old brick house represents the old ways of African American society, in Harlem, a place that is noted for being the center of cultural change, as well as having a long green lawn that makes it look on the outside as if things are good, but the barred windows disguise how on the inside the old house is just empty and silent. The house is salient, standing out conspicuously from everything else, looking like it's a beacon the the black community when in realitly all the people outside can't get in.

I think that it also universally symbolizes the unwillingness of people to change their inside, far more willing to put on a facade and appear like they know what they are doing and that they are in charge and then ignore what is going on around them. Like the house, many people look like they are healthy and alive, but when you look in their eyes, like the windows of the house, you can't see anything. Even though the hordes of people outside are clamoring for attention and action, the house is unmoved and untouched.

Works Cited

Reuben, Paul. "PAL: Wallace Thurman (1902-1934)." //California State University Stanislaus | Home//. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .

"Wallace Thurman." //AALBC.com The #1 Site for African American Literature - Author Profiles, Book Reviews, Interviews and More//. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2011. .