African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Editor's Note: "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade"

This short story was first published in the Fire!! collection in 1926. Here, Richard Bruce Nugent uses a unique stream of consciousness technique to tell the story of a young man named Alex whose life story bears many similarities to the author's own.

The early part of the story describes Alex's father's death and his interactions with his mother. From there, we transition to Alex's literary ambitions and his social circle, which includes the names of many real authors who were in Bruce Nugent's life, including Langston Hughes (whose poem, "Boy," is quoted in the story), Zora Neale Hurston, James Branch Cabell, Carl Van Vechten, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, and H.L. Mencken, to name just a few of the figures who make cameo appearances in "Smoke, Lilies, and Jade."

"Smoke, Lilies, and Jade" is perhaps best known for its surprisingly frank and direct representation of a same sex relationship. In the second half of the story, Alex is torn between two lovers, a Spanish-speaking man named "Beauty" and a woman named Melva. 

Nugent also makes specific reference to James Branch Cabell's story, Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice (1919), a book that had strong sexual double-entendres, which was deemed obscene by New York prosecutors in 1920. (Cabell was later acquitted of obscenity.)  

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