Real life

Infants of the Spring

Gentleman Jigger

Richard Bruce Nugent

Paul Arbian (get it? RBN).

First physical description: “Paul was very tall. His face was the color of a bleached saffron leaf. His hair was wiry and untrained. It was his habit not to wear a necktie because he knew that his neck was too well modeled to be hidden from public gaze. He wore no sox either, nor underwear, and those few clothes he did deign to affect were musty and dishevelled.”

Later in the novel, another character says: 

“And I don’t think you ought to let Paul [Nugent] hang around there. He’s nothing but a parasite.”
Raymond [Thurman] “I know it, Euphoria. But he’s a most charming parasite, and I’m certain he has more talent than any of us.”
“Why doesn’t he do something with it then?”
Raymond [Thurman] “He’s got to be awakened, Euphoria. Give him time. He’s still very young. Some day he will surprise us all.”
 

Stuartt

Sieg (a white friend): “Personally,  I think you are prejudiced because he’s a friend of yours.”

Rusty (Thurman’s character) “Very likely. But i Think I can see things and people objectively enough to see his true worth. He is an excellent artist and writes beautifully. He has more promise than any of the other young Negroes I know. All he needs is someone to make him do things.” 

Wallace Thurman

Raymond Taylor

"Raymond prided himself on knowing all the ins and outs of Harlem. He had been resident there for over three years, during which time he had explored every nook and cranny of that phenomenal Negro settlement. It had, during this period, attained international fame, deservedly, Raymond thought. But he was disgusted with the way everyone sought to romanticize Harlem and Harlem Negroes.

Raymond Pelman (“Rusty”). “But there was still Raymond Pelman, who, to Stuartt’s way of thinking, waded waist-high above the other Negroes. He was the sepia intellect par excellence. Pelman did not have to live up to the promise of sonnets of brown-and-white loves, nor was he compelled to mouth into the void of American democracy the voicleless cry of protest against the wrongs done to Negroes.” (20)

Iolanthe Sydney – landlord at 267 136th Street, where several “New Negro” artists and authors lived between 1926-1928. Her vision was to give the artists considerable leeway on paying rent.

From Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: “At 267 West 136th Street she created a miniature artist’s colony; here, the rent was minimal and seldom collected. Thurman and Nugent, whose mother was a client of Sydney’s employment agency, found this arrangement irresistible. Other residents ‘‘of the artistic persuasion’’ included actor/singer Service Bell and aspiring artist Rex Gorleigh. Before long, Thurman’s blonde lover, Harold Stefansson, nephew of the explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, moved in, too.”

Euphoria Blake. Relevant passage from the novel: “That’s the trouble with Negroes. They’re too easily satisfied.”

“Everyone can’t be as energetic as you, Euphoria.”

“Maybe not, Ray, but I want that house back there to be a monument to the New Negro. I wish some of the other artists and writers would move in. And I wish they would all work like Pelham does.”

“You should be thankful that there is only one Pelham in the house....Now don’t start preaching to me about the virtue of his persistence. I know all that. But if this Negro renaissance is going to actually live up to its name and reputation, it’s going to be Pauls we need, not Pelhams. We have too many of them now... too many like both him and Eustace, striving to make a place for themselves in a milieu to which they are completely alien.”

Yolande South. “Yolande, who had come to New York and made a success through employment agencies and real estate. This house was her pet – the best of the seven she owned. And she wanted , as to most people, to be one of the Creators–one of the artists of the world. So this great mansion, built in a more generous day by the great Stanford White, she dedicated to the housing of the artists of her race.” (72)

Rex Goreleigh

Pelham Gaylord (real name George Jones) – arrested for statutory rape in the novel, after having an affair with another tenant’s teenage daughter

Leo Green. “Leo Green, who had the large front room on the next floor, was a valet–a gentleman’s gentlemanwith artistic urges frustrated by limited ability and augmented by unlimited opportunism.” (72)

Also arrested for statutory rape in Gentleman Jigger, following the same dynamic as we see in Infants.

Langston Hughes

Tony Crews. “Raymond had no way of knowing and even an intimate friendship with Tony himself had failed to enlighten him. For Tony was the most close-mouthed and cagey individual Raymond had ever known when it came to personal matters. He fended off every attempt to probe into his inner self and did this with such an unconscious and naïve air that the prober soon came to one of two conclusions: Either Tony had no depth whatsoever, or else he was too deep for plumbing by ordinary mortals.”

Tony/Anthony: “He also met Anthony. Anthony was a young poet. They became fast friends. For a tim they were inseparable. From “Tony” he heard about Paris, Africa, and Serge Von Verttner. Tony was the first person he had met who was on intimate terms with an author. Tony even received letters from Von Vertner and called him “Serge.” 

Harold Jan Stefansson – white Swedish immigrant who becomes Wallace Thurman’s roommate (and presumably, lover) at 267 W. 136th Street

Stephen Jorgensen. Stephen and Raymond become best friends and roommates, and Stephen quickly comes to have deep knowledge of the Harlem arts and culture scene. He makes thoughtful comments about the various major players in the text, including Paul. It's his departure later in the novel that precipitates Raymond's mental breakdown. 

Sieg Borjolfen

W.E.B. Du Bois

Dr. La France: “And Dr. LaFrance, a pompous, important-looking, yellow Negro with an impressive Van Dyke beard, who had contributed to America some of the finest and driest prose of present-day literature.” 

Cal Van Vechten

Serge Von Vertner. “Serge Von Vertner, the bit white discoverer of High-Harlem, wrote perfect, neurotic, precious books spiced with the gayest sophisticisms. He stared with undressing blue eyes from a face deceivingly moronic.”

Alain Leroy Locke

Dr. AL Parkes. In Thurman’s depiction in the novel, comes across as somewhat of a pompous, respectability-driven fool.

“It’s not a matter of taking it seriously,” Dr. Parkes answered solemnly. “It’s a matter of protecting yourself from unnecessary attacks on your reputation. This is a new day in the history of our race. Talented Negroes are being watched by countless people, white and black, to produce something new, something tremendous. They are waiting for you to prove yourselves worthy so that they can help you. Scandal stories in the newspapers certainly won’t influence the public favorably.”

Parke

Leland B. Pettit. A gay white man who was well-connected with Harlem Renaissance writers. He appears in both Infants of the Spring and Gentleman Jigger. His personality evidently left enough of a mark that he also appeared in a third Roman a Clef, Strange Brother, published in 1931.

“Leland B. Pettit, the organist of the All Saints Cathedral Choir, who was said to have committed suicide over some boy, an incident fictionalized in Blair Niles's powerful novel Strange Brother (1931). 

Samuel Carter. Described at length in Chapter 2 as a white ally of Black causes (not coded as gay per se). Later comes into conflict with “Bull” – and reveals his suppressed racist feelings.

“No Negro ever had the welfare of his race so much at heart as did the alien Samuel. News of a lynching upset him for days. He would excitedly buttonhole everyone with whom he came into contact, and be apoplectic in his denunciation of lawless southern mobs. Apprised of isolated cases of racial discrimination in restaurants or theaters, Samuel would go into a rage, write letters to all the daily newspapers and to city officials, excoriating the offending management, asking for a general boycott, and demanding police and legislative action.

As a reward for all this vigorous crusading, Samuel soon found himself vociferously acclaimed by Negroes. His mail was tremendous. Grateful darkies from coast to coast sent him letters of appreciation or appeals for help.”

Leslie Prentiss. “Leslie Prentiss was an anemic-seeming, vague though good-looking young white man. He had ahir-colored hair and eye-colored eyes and a faint flushand would never be remembered in a crowd, unless the crowd was in Harlem or China or some other dark-peopled place.” (55)

Gwendolyn Bennett

Theresa. “Then there was Theresa, who taught art in the New York schools, and who actually drew very poorly, but wrote lovely and rather perfect, though slight, poetry.” 925)

Jean Toomer

Possibly poet Aeon. Described as Stuart Brennan's older brother. Has an affair with a white European woman in the novel (Myra)

Countee Cullen (and Harold Jackman)

DeWitt Clinton. “DeWitt Clinton, the Negro poet laureate, was there, too, accompanied, as usual, by his fideles achates, David Holloway. David had been acclaimed the most handsome Negro in Harlem by a certain group of whites. He was in great demand by artists who wished to paint him. He had become a much touted romantic figure. In reality he was a fairly intelligent school teacher, quite circumspect in his habits, a rather timid beau, who imagined himself to be bored with life.”

Service Bell

Eustace Savoy. First physical description: “Eustace was a tenor. He was also a gentleman. The word elegant described him perfectly. His every movement was ornate and graceful. He had acquired his physical bearing and mannerisms from mid-Victorian matinee idols. No one knew his correct age. His face was lined and drawn. An unidentified scalp disease had rendered him bald on the right side of his head. To cover this mistake of nature, he let the hair on the left side grow long, and combed it sidewise over the top of his head. The effect was both useful and bizarre. Eustace also had a passion for cloisonné bric-a-brac, misty etchings, antique silver pieces, caviar, and rococo jewelry. And his most treasured possession was an onyx ring, the size of a robin’s egg, which he wore on his right index finger.”

Claude McKay

Cedric Williams. “Next to arrive was Cedric Williams, a West Indian, whose first book, a collection of short stories with a Caribbean background, in Raymond’s opinion, marked him as one of the three Negroes writing who actually had something to say, and also some concrete idea of style.”

Helene Johnson

Hazel Jamison. “Sweetie May was accompanied by two young girls, recently emigrated from Boston. They were the latest to be hailed as incipient immortals. Their names were Doris Westmore and Hazel Jamison. Doris wrote short stories. Hazel wrote poetry. Both had become known through a literary contest fostered by one of the leading Negro magazines. Raymond liked them more than he did most of the younger recruits to the movement. For one thing, they were characterized by a freshness and naïveté which he and his cronies had lost. And, surprisingly enough for Negro prodigies, they actually gave promise of possessing literary talent.”

Dorothy West

Doris Westmore. "Sweetie May was accompanied by two young girls, recently emigrated from Boston. They were the latest to be hailed as incipient immortals. Their names were Doris Westmore and Hazel Jamison. Doris wrote short stories. Hazel wrote poetry. Both had become known through a literary contest fostered by one of the leading Negro magazines. Raymond liked them more than he did most of the younger recruits to the movement. For one thing, they were characterized by a freshness and naïveté which he and his cronies had lost. And, surprisingly enough for Negro prodigies, they actually gave promise of possessing literary talent.

Effie Lee Newsome

Possibly Sweetie May Carr?

Zora Neale Hurston

Nona: “He met Nona, a student of anthropology– a study, the name of which impressed Stuartt enough to tempt him into dipping into it also. And also, what Nona was, with her personality that shone so brightly in any gathering and her free and easy freedom so different from the lip service of so many others, excited and inspired him.” (25)

Aaron Douglas

Howard. “Howard was an excellent artist. Tall and with an awkward grace and face that made Stuartt think of a mustachioed and black Lincoln. The newspapers were beginning to play Howard up as the “Race Artist” of what they chose to call “The Negro Renaissance.” (25)