Archon Arna Bontemps (Chi Boulé)

Archon Arna Bontemps is one of America's most distinguished writers. The statement below on his life and works appeared in the April 22, 1963 issue of the Milwaukee Reader, a pamphlet published by the Public Library System of that city.

Arna Bontemps, poet, author, librarian was the guest of the Milwaukee Public Library as part of the Library's observance of National Library Week, April 21-27.

Bontemps, according to the April, 1955, issue of the Tennessee Librarian, is a writer from 7 until 10 in the morning and a librarian the rest of the day. Director of the Fisk University Library since 1943, Bontemps is a graduate of the Library School of the University of Chicago and says that he entered this field because of his own love for books.

Long before this, however, he had received some recognition and critical acclaim as a poet, novelist and writer of books for children. The latter, no doubt, instigated by his own brood which now numbers six. After graduating from Pacific Union College in Northern California in 1923, he went to New York and saw the Negro Renaissance, as he phrases it, "From a grandstand seat." Here he made many lasting friendships, notably with Langston Hughes, with whom he has since collaborated to produce many books.

In 1925 he was awarded the Crisis Magazine Poetry prize for "Nocturne at Bethesda" and the Alexander Pushkin Prize in both 1926 and 1927. His poems have appeared in many anthologies and periodicals. God Sends Sunday, his first novel was published in 1931. This novel related the story of the rise and fall of Augie, a Negro jockey, and received highly favorable reviews.

Gabriel, in Black Thunder (1936) plots a slave insurrection in Henrico County, Va., and Toussaint Louverture in Drums at Dusk (1939) is leader of the slave revolt in Haiti around the time of the French Revolution. These last two novels are fictionizations of actual events.

During this period Bontemps started on a third writing career, this time as an author of children's books. Popo and Fifina (1932), written in collaboration with Langston Hughes, told the story of two Negro children in Haiti. This was followed by You Can't Pet a Possum (1934); Sadfaced Boy (1937); Fast Sooner Hound (1942) with Jack Conroy; Chariot in the Sky (1951) a fictionized story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers; Slappy Hooper, the Wonderful Sign Painter (1946) with Jack Conroy; Sam Patch, the High, Wide, and Handsome Jumper (1951) and Lonesome Boy (1955).

In 1946 Bontemps realized the ambition of many writers to have their work appear on Broadway. St. Louis Woman, a musical comedy adapted by Bontemps and Countee Cullen from his novel God Sends Sunday opened in April of that year and ran for 113 performances before closing in September.

His other plays are Creole (with Schuyler Watts) and Careless Love (with Langston Hughes).

Bontemps has also been active in the fields of biography and history. He has written several biographies of Negro heroes for the younger reader, among them are: The Story of George Washington Carver; Frederick Douglas; Slave, Fighter, Freeman and We Have Tomorrow, a collection of career stories for older boys and girls. He edited W. C. Handy's autobiography Father of the Blues.

His Story of the Negro was hailed as filling a need for a readable yet accurate history of the Negro. Another book in this vein is One Hundred Years of Negro Freedom.

With Langston Hughes, the old friend from New York days, he has edited the Poetry of the Negro, adefinitive anthology of poetry written by and about Negroes from 1746 to 1949, and the Book of Negro Folklore.

Archon and Archousa Bontemps reside on Geneva Circle in Nashville. Frequent visitors to their hilltop home are their six children and the grandchildren, to whom the Bontemps are deeply endeared.

Source: The Boulé Journal, Volume 25, Number 4, July 1963