Arna Bontemps
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Brief Biography
Arna Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, but grew up in southern California. After completing his bachelor’s degree in English at Pacific Union College in 1923, he worked at the Los Angeles Post Office and wrote poetry in his free time. He moved to New York City and began teaching at Harlem Academy after one of his poems was published in The Crisis in 1924. Bontemps gained recognition for his poetry and also published his first novel God Sends Sunday. He moved to Huntsville, Alabama, to accept a teaching position at Oakwood College when Harlem Academy closed in 1931. While in Alabama, his first children’s books were published. He resigned from Oakwood College in 1934 and briefly lived in California, Chicago, and the Caribbean before returning to Chicago to attend library school at the University of Chicago. Bontemps spent the next twenty-three years as the head librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. While there, he taught creative writing classes and continued his own writing. He briefly taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Yale University before returning to Fisk University to be a writer-in-residence in 1971. Bontemps died of a heart attack in Nashville in 1973.
Publications
God Sends Sunday. New York; Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931. Rpt. New York; AMS Press, 1972. Rpt. New York; Washington Square Press, 2005.
Black Thunder. New York; Macmillan, 1936. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1968. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1992.
Sad-Faced Boy. Illus. Virginia Lee Burton. Boston, MA; Houghton Mifflin, 1937.
They Seek a City. Garden City, New York; Doubleday, 1945. Rpt. as Anyplace But Here. New York; Hill and Wang, 1966, and as Anyplace But Here. Columbia, MO; University of Missouri Press, 1997.
Story of the Negro. Illus. Raymond Lufkin. New York; Knopf, 1948. Rpt. 1955 and 1969.
Lonesome Boy. Boston, MA; Houghton Mifflin, 1955. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1988.
Personals. London; P. Bremen, 1963. Rpt. in 1973.
The Old South: "A Summer Tragedy" and Other Stories of the Thirties. New York; Dodd Mead, 1973.
Black Thunder. New York; Macmillan, 1936. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1968. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1992.
Sad-Faced Boy. Illus. Virginia Lee Burton. Boston, MA; Houghton Mifflin, 1937.
They Seek a City. Garden City, New York; Doubleday, 1945. Rpt. as Anyplace But Here. New York; Hill and Wang, 1966, and as Anyplace But Here. Columbia, MO; University of Missouri Press, 1997.
Story of the Negro. Illus. Raymond Lufkin. New York; Knopf, 1948. Rpt. 1955 and 1969.
Lonesome Boy. Boston, MA; Houghton Mifflin, 1955. Rpt. Boston, MA; Beacon Press, 1988.
Personals. London; P. Bremen, 1963. Rpt. in 1973.
The Old South: "A Summer Tragedy" and Other Stories of the Thirties. New York; Dodd Mead, 1973.
Themes
Arna Bontemps wrote fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults as well as poetry. His works are known for their impact on Black literature. Some of his stories are based on his experiences in Alabama.
Publisher
Alabama Authors of the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Beverley Park Rilett, http://AlabamaAuthors.org
Collection
Citation
Bontemps, Arna, “Arna Bontemps,” Alabama Authors of the 19th & 20th Centuries, accessed September 20, 2024, https://alabamaauthors.org/items/show/543.