Jessie Fauset (Editor and Author)
Also poems published in magazines by Jessie Fauset
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961) was one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, she largely grew up in Philadelphia in a large family that included several step-siblings. Her father, Redmon Fauset, was an African Methodist Episcopal minister. She attended the predominantly-white Philadelphia High School for Girls, and may have been the school's first African American graduate. The President of Bryn Mawr College, M. Carey Thomas, raised money to support Fauset's study at Cornell University (in part because Thomas desired to keep women of color out of Bryn Mawr).
At Cornell, Fauset studied classical languages and French, and graduated in 1905. Fauset went on to receive a Master's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania (in 1919). Between 1906 and 1919, Fauset taught French and Latin at would become the Dunbar High School in Washington DC.
The Crisis. Fauset began contributing regularly to the "Looking Glass" section of The Crisis in the summer of 1918. In October 1919, Fauset moved to New York City, where she became the literary editor of The Crisis, and an important part of its editorial staff (though her work was largely uncredited and her name did not appear on the magazine's masthead). She served as literary editor of the magazine until 1926.
In addition to her poetry and criticism, Fauset published a good deal of fiction. Her first publications were short stories, including "Emmy" (published in The Crisis in December 1912 and January 1913). She published two novels in the 1920s, There is Confusion (1924) and Plum Bun (1928). Both novels were well-received upon publication, though Fauset's personal reputation was quickily eclipsed by some of the young male authors whose careers she helped establish, including Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen.