The first book-length study of Dorothy West, now with new writings and insights
Originally published in 2005, WheretheWildGrapeGrows:SelectedWritings, 1930–1950 was the first book-length study of Dorothy West's work, providing a rich and insightful profile of one of the last surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance.
Although West (1907–1998) is often remembered for her novels of Boston's African American community and her lifelong ties to Martha's Vineyard, her career was also shaped by her formative years in New York, where she moved among the era's most influential writers, artists, and political figures, including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, and many others. Cynthia Davis and Verner D. Mitchell document these early decades with care, recovering out-of-print, little-known, and unpublished works, alongside evocative family photographs, to illuminate West's distinctive voice and vision.
This expanded second edition includes three important pieces not featured in the first edition: West's story "Cook," which foreshadows tropes of racial and gendered double consciousness and geographic mobility later developed in her novels; and her two Russian texts, "Room in Red Square" and "Russian Correspondence." This new edition situates West's writings within the larger history of African American artists' fascination with and ambivalence toward the U.S.S.R. The editors also extend their analysis beyond West's early life to consider her final three decades, a period of renewed creativity and recognition.
With a revised, enhanced introduction and a richer selection of West's writings, this updated second edition is an indispensable resource for understanding the full scope of Dorothy West's life, art, and enduring legacy.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Preface. Toward a Reappraisal of Dorothy West's Work
Introduction to Where the Wild Grape Grows: Second Edition
Introduction. Dorothy West and Her Circle
Carolina
At the Swan Boats
Blackberrying
Quilting
Prologue to a Life
Hannah Byde
The Black Dress
My Baby
Mammy
Pluto
The House Across the Way
Mrs. Marlowe
The Stairs
Where the Wild Grape Grows
Winter on Martha's Vineyard
Elephant's Dance: A Memoir of Wallace Thurman
The Inroads of Time
Selected Letters
Cooks
Room in Red Square
Russian Correspondence: A Fragment
Appendix I. New York Daily News Stories
Appendix II. Family Trees
About the Author :
Dorothy West was born in Boston in 1907 and died on Martha's Vineyard in 1998.
Cynthia Davis is professor of English at San Jacinto College. Together, she and Dr. Mitchell have published seven books, primarily on women writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Their most recent volume is In Flaming Letters: Lucia Pitts, Poet of the Six Triple Eight.
Verner D. Mitchell is professor of English at the University of Memphis and editor of This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
Review :
"Mitchell and Davis's volume contributes to current reappraisals of West, expanding our knowledge of her work and her personal history in order to elevate her from bit player in the Harlem Renaissance to a more significant figure in 20th century African American literature. Answering some questions and leaving others open for interpretation, this treatment of West reconfigures that frustrating gap into an invitation for further study while pointing the way towards future considerations of West and her milieu."—Rychetta N. Watkins, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association
"This collection of West's work will certainly help readers see that she did not simply 'fall silent' in the 1940s only to return to writing to complete The Wedding in the 1980s. This book enables us to see her as a more thoroughly accomplished writer. It is an important work that will lead to a serious revision of West's place in the canon of African American writers."—Joseph T. Skerrett, author of Literature, Race, and Ethnicity: Contesting American Identities
"What a great idea to gather in one volume the many previously published and unpublished writings of Dorothy West! . . . This edition throws special light on West's talent and milieu, conveying a complex sense of her as a person in relationship to her family life and commitments, her artistic peers, and her intimate relationships. The editors' introduction and the biographical essay set the right tone for the project, appropriate for both the academic and the general reader."—Amritjit Singh, coeditor of The Collected Writings of Wallace Thurman: A Harlem Renaissance Reader
