A literary event―selected and previously uncollected fiction by the woman who was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance. 
When Dorothy West died in 1998, she was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, a contemporary of Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and Richard Wright. Popular history holds that between the publication of her two novels (The Living is Easy in 1948 and The Wedding in 1995), Dorothy West fell silent.
In fact, there was never a time in Dorothy West's life in which she was not writing and publishing. The Last Leaf of Harlem gathers West's writing from these supposedly silent years--syndicated fiction in the New York Daily News, pieces for the Work Progress Administration's Federal Writer's Project, and publications in small journals and magazines--along with known and beloved pieces by this extraordinary writer.
Many of these stories, describing and exploring marriage, loss, family life, and poverty were lost until now. The Last Leaf of Harlem brings together the almost-forgotten pieces of Dorothy West's lifework, and gives the reader a fresh look into a remarkable writer and career. 
DOROTHY WEST was born in Boston circa 1908. At her death in 1998, she was the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance. Her works include: The Living is Easy, The Wedding, and The Richer, The Poorer. LIONEL C. BASCOM is a professor of English at Western Connecticut State University. A long-time investigative journalist, Bascom has specialized lately in the discovery of forgotten or neglected literary manuscripts by early 20th Century African-Americans, black folklore and stories about black culture in the United States. He is the editor of A Renaissance in Harlem and lives in Danbury, Connecticut.

The Last Leaf of Harlem: Selected and Newly Discovered Fiction by the Author of The Wedding

Literature & Fiction

West, Dorothy

Contemporary

St.Martin's Press

The Wedding, Dorothy West's first novel in almost 50 years, is ably brought to life in this finely nuanced audio version. Writer and actress Regina Taylor (Courage Under Fire, Lean on Me, and TV's I'll Fly Away) uses her considerable talent to show off West's sensual and elegant prose to full advantage. The Oval, an elite African American community in 1950s Martha's Vineyard, sets the stage for the story of the impending nuptials of Shelby Coles, the golden-haired, fair-skinned youngest daughter of the neighborhood's leading family. Shelby's intended groom is Meade Tyler, a white jazz man with a far less upscale pedigree than his bride. (Like many grooms, Meade plays little role in the pre-wedding drama; the snippets of jazz that frame the reading are about as close as listeners get to meeting him.) Sparks fly in the few dozen hours before the wedding, when one by one those close to Shelby come to her to make a case for or against the controversial match. As new characters are introduced, Taylor succeeds in giving each a distinct personality through her reading. 
Shelby is dragged through a crisis of identity, while West skillfully steers listeners through an examination of the tangled and painful meanings of race and class in the United States, themes that still resonate today. Taylor's reading deftly renders the subtle distinctions between the characters and their backgrounds without ever descending into stereotype. (Running time: about 180 minutes, two cassettes) --Naomi J. Cohn

Wedding

Literary

Virago Press

Richer The Poorer

History & Criticism

Virago

On the island of Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s there exists a proud, insular, nearly unassailable community known as the Oval, made up of the best and brightest of New York's and Boston's black bourgeoisie. Dr. Clark Coles and his wife Corinne, pillars of this community, are mortified that their youngest daughter Shelby is set on marrying Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. Equally alarmed is Lute McNeil, a successful black furniture maker from Boston who is new to Oak Bluffs and desperate for social acceptance. Lute has fallen in love with Shelby Coles, or at least the way of life she represents, and he will stop at nothing to pull her away from Meade. As the day of the wedding approaches, the tension surrounding Shelby, Lute, and Meade builds, climaxing in a single tragic act that will forever change the lives of three American families. The Wedding is a wise and heartfelt novel about the shackles of race and class we all wear and the price we pay to break them. It is also an unforgettable history of the rise of the black middle class, written by a woman who lived it. Wise, heartfelt, and shattering, The Wedding is Dorothy West's crowning achievement, and one of the last books edited for Doubleday by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Wedding, The

United States

DOUBLEDAY

In her final novel, Dorothy West offers an intimate glimpse into African American middle class. Set on bucolic Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s, The Wedding tells the story of life in the Oval, a proud, insular community made up of the best and brightest of the East Coast's black bourgeoisie. Within this inner circle of "blue-vein society," we witness the prominent Coles family gather for the wedding of the loveliest daughter, Shelby, who could have chosen from "a whole area of eligible men of the right colors and the right professions." Instead, she has fallen in love with and is about to be married to Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York. A shock wave breaks over the Oval as its longtime members grapple with the changing face of its community.
With elegant, luminous prose, Dorothy West crowns her literary career by illustrating one family's struggle to break the shackles of race and class.

The Wedding: A Novel

Anchor

The collected short stories and autobiographical writings of the last survivor of the Harlem Renaissance of the twenties and thirties describes growing up in Boston's black middle class, her relationship with Langston Hughes, and other subjects. 15,000 first printing.

The Richer, The Poorer

On the heels of the bestseller success of her novel The Wedding, Dorothy West, the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, presents a collection of essays and stories that explore both the realism of everyday life, and the fantastical, extraordinary circumstances of one woman's life in a mythic time. Traversing the universal themes and conflicts between poverty and prosperity, men and women, and young and old, and compiling writing that spans almost seventy years, The Richer, The Poorer not only affords an unparalleled window into the African-American middle class, but also delves into the richness of experience of "one of the finest writers produced in this country during the Roaring Twenties"(Book Page).

The Richer, the Poorer: Stories, Sketches, and Reminiscences

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

On the island of Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s  there exists a proud, insular, nearly unassailable  community known as the Oval, made up of the best  and brightest of New York's and Boston's black  bourgeoisie. Dr. Clark Coles and his wife Corinne,  pillars of this community, are mortified that  their youngest daughter Shelby is set on marrying  Meade Wyler, a white jazz musician from New York.  Equally alarmed is Lute McNeil, a successful black  furniture maker from Boston who is new to Oak  Bluffs and desperate for social acceptance. Lute has  fallen in love with Shelby Coles, or at least the  way of life she represents, and he will stop at  nothing to pull her away from Meade. As the day of  the wedding approaches, the tension surrounding  Shelby, Lute, and Meade builds, climaxing in a  single tragic act that will forever change the lives  of three American families. The  Wedding is a wise and heartfelt novel about the  shackles of race and class we all wear and the  price we pay to break them. It is also an  unforgettable history of the rise of the black middle class,  written by a woman who lived it. Wise, heartfelt, and shattering, The Wedding is Dorothy West's crowning achievement, and one of the last books edited for Doubleday by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

The Wedding, Limited Edition

The Living is Easy

One of only a handful of novels published by black women during the forties, the story of ambitious Cleo Judson is a long-time cult classic. The Living Is Easy is delightfully wry and ironic humorâ€”even bitchinessâ€”of the novel coexists with a challenging moral and social complexity. "A powerful work."â€”Essence"Dorothy West is a brisk storyteller with an eye for ironic detail...a deft stylist and writer of social satire."â€”Ms."Long beloved for its wry and ironic humor, this novel continues to delight and challenge readers."â€”Feminist Bookstore News* Alternate of the Book-of-the-Month and Quality Paperback Book Clubs *Suggested for course use in:African-American studies20th-century U.S. literature

The Living Is Easy

Ayer Co. Pub

In a story that documents the rise of the Black middle class, written by a woman who lived it, a racially-mixed wedding is about to take place on Martha's Vineyard in the 1950s--amidst extreme tension and resistance

The Wedding

Thorndike Pr

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