Author(s): Jean Toomer

Classics

"[Cane] has been reverberating in me to an astonishing degree. I love it passionately; could not possibly exist without it." - Alice Walker. Historically important as one of the earliest expressions of the Harlem Renaissance and as an experiment in modernism, this landmark work combines poetry, drama, and storytelling to contrast life in an African-American community in the rural South with that of the urban North. AUTHOR: A native of Washington, D.C., Jean Toomer (1894-1967) took a four-month teaching job in Georgia in 1921. Here the poet, playwright, and novelist reconnected with his African-American roots to create his best-known work, Cane, a book of prose poetry inspired by the people and landscapes of the Deep South.