African American Poetry: A Digital AnthologyMain MenuFull Text Collection: Books Published by African American Poets, 1870-1929Long list of 100+ full texts books of poetry available on this "Anthology"Author Pages: Bios and Full Text CollectionsList of African American poets onAfrican American Periodical Poetry (1900-1928)A collection of African Amerian Periodical Poetry, mostly focused on 1900-1928Areas of Interest: Topics and ThemesAfrican American Poetry: Anthologies of the 1920sPoetry by African American Women (1890-1930): A Reader and GuideOpen access textbook introducing readers to Poetry by Black WomenExploring Datasets related to African American poetryAbout This Site: Mission Statement, Contributors, and Recent UpdatesAn account of the history and evolution of this site by the site editor.Further Reading / Works CitedAmardeep Singhc185e79df2fca428277052b90841c4aba30044e1
Fenton Johnson, Photograph, 1915
1media/Fenton Johnson Photo 1915 Visions of the Dusk_thumb.jpg2022-11-21T10:28:28+00:00Amardeep Singhc185e79df2fca428277052b90841c4aba30044e12131Photograph of Fenton Johnson from "Visions of the Dusk" (1915)plain2022-11-21T10:28:28+00:00Amardeep Singhc185e79df2fca428277052b90841c4aba30044e1
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12022-08-03T16:48:55+00:00Fenton Johnson: Poems and Author Profile14plain2026-01-08T18:05:35+00:00Fenton Johnson (1888-1958) was born and raised in Chicago in a middle-class family. He briefly attended Northwestern University before completing a Bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago. Johnson also attended the Columbia University Pulitzer School of Journalism. Johnson also briefly taught at a private college in Louisville, Kentucky and lived in New York City for a few years during the 1910s.
Johnson published three collections of poetry in the 1910s, including A Little Dreaming (1913), Visions of the Dusk (1915), and Songs of the Soil (1916).
Johnson also submitted a manuscript for publication to a New York publisher, A Wild Plaint, in 1908. The manuscript was rejected, but recently recovered and digitized by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas. The digitized manuscript of A Wild Plaint can be viewed in page image format here.
Songs of the Soil was reviewed in Poetry Magazine in June 1917. The issue of Poetry where the review was published can be found here.
Through the 1910s, Johnson endeavored to start magazines, including a magazine called The Champion (1916), focused on examples of successful Black folks in the arts and athletics. He later started a second magazine called The Favorite (1918-1920). He later indicated that all of the writing in The Favorite was produced by himself, though he used a variety of pennames to suggest other authors were involved. Both magazines quickly failed, and Johnson re-published several of the short stories he wrote for The Favorite in a collection of short stories called Tales of Darkest America. A single full issue of The Favorite is available at HathiTrust.
Johnson published several poems in predominantly white modernist poetry magazines in the 1910s and 20s, including Poetry and Others:
In 1919, Johnson published several free verse poems in Alfred Kreymborg's Others, including "Tired" in 1919. Other poems in Others include "The Scarlet Woman,""The Minister,""The Banjo Player,""The Drunkard," and "Aunt Hannah Jackson." These poems suggest a break with Johnson's earlier formal and thematic focus. The most obvious change is the decision to engage with free verse, but the poems in Kreymborg's collection also evince an investment in social realism and Black street culture that had been absent from his first three published collections.
Johnson's poem "Tired" was first published in Others and then re-published in The Book of American Negro Poetry in 1922.
