{"product_id":"cane-9780871402103","title":"Cane","description":"First published in 1923, Jean Toomer's \u003cem\u003eCane\u003c\/em\u003e is an innovative literary work--part drama, part poetry, part fiction--powerfully evoking black life in the South. Rich in imagery, Toomer's impressionistic, sometimes surrealistic sketches of Southern rural and urban life are permeated by visions of smoke, sugarcane, dusk, and fire; the northern world is pictured as a harsher reality of asphalt streets. This iconic work of American literature is published with a new afterword by Rudolph Byrd of Emory University and Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University, who provide groundbreaking biographical information on Toomer, place his writing within the context of American modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, and examine his shifting claims about his own race and his pioneering critique of race as a scientific or biological concept.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eToomer, Jean:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eJean Toomer\u003c\/strong\u003e (1894-1967) was born in Washington, D.C., the son of educated blacks of Creole stock. Literature was his first love and he regularly contributed avant garde poetry and short stories to such magazines as \u003cem\u003eDial\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBroom\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSecession\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDouble Dealer\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eLittle Review\u003c\/em\u003e. After a literary apprenticeship in New York, Toomer taught school in rural Georgia. His experiences there led to the writing of \u003cem\u003eCane\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGates, Henry Louis:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eHenry Louis Gates, Jr.\u003c\/strong\u003e (Ph.D.Cambridge), is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and American Research, Harvard University. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eLife Upon These Shores: Looking at African American History, 1513-2008\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eBlack in Latin America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eTradition and the Black Atlantic: Critical Theory in the African Diaspora\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFaces of America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFigures in Black: Words, Signs, and the Racial Self\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Criticism\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLoose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eColored People: A Memoir\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThe Future of Race with Cornel West\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eWonders of the African World\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eThirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eThe Trials of Phillis Wheatley\u003c\/em\u003e. His is also the writer, producer, and narrator of PBS documentaries \u003cem\u003eFinding Your Roots\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eBlack in Latin America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eFaces of America\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eAfrican American Lives 1 and 2\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eLooking for Lincoln\u003c\/em\u003e; \u003cem\u003eAmerica Beyond the Color Line\u003c\/em\u003e; and \u003cem\u003eWonders of the African World\u003c\/em\u003e. He is the editor of \u003cem\u003eAfrican American National Biography\u003c\/em\u003e with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, and \u003cem\u003eThe Dictionary of African Biography\u003c\/em\u003e with Anthony Appiah; \u003cem\u003eEncyclopedia Africana\u003c\/em\u003e with Anthony Appiah; and \u003cem\u003eThe Bondwoman's Narrative\u003c\/em\u003e by Hannah Crafts, as well as editor-in-chief of TheRoot.com.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eByrd, Rudolph P.:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eRudolph P. Byrd\u003c\/b\u003e (Ph.D. Yale University) is the Goodrich C. White Professor of American Studies in the Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts and the Department of African American Studies and the founding director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University. He is the author and editor of ten books, including \u003ci\u003eJean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eEssentials by Jean Toomer with Charles Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eCharles Johnson's Novels: Writing the American Palimpsest\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Writings of James Weldon Johnson\u003c\/i\u003e; and with \u003ci\u003eAlice Walker The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker\u003c\/i\u003e. Among Professor Byrd's awards and fellowships are an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship at Harvard University; Visiting Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center; and the Thomas Jefferson Award from Emory University. He is a founding officer of the Alice Walker Literary Society.","brand":"Liveright Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50717062136082,"sku":"9780871402103","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5a377875-0e23-4dd1-848e-f1b920745d18.jpg?v=1756201654","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/cane-9780871402103","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}