While this is a novel, not a historical study, I hope it might provoke readers’ interest in the era and issues portrayed here. The following books offer a good range of further information and insight, and each leads to deeper questions and other excellent resources:
Bernard, Emily. Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
Claridge, Laura. The Lady with the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2016.
Douglas, Ann. Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1995.
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. New York: Penguin, 2019.
Kaplan, Carla. Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance. New York: HarperCollins, 2013.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Knopf, 1929.
Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 1997.
Loughery, John. Alias S. S. Van Dine. New York: Scribner’s, 1992.
Molesworth, Charles. And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Stewart, Jeffrey C. The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Van Vechten, Carl. Nigger Heaven. New York: Knopf, 1926.
Van Vechten, Carl. The Splendid Drunken Twenties: Selections from the Daybooks, 1922–1930. Edited by Bruce Kellner. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2003.
Watson, Steven. The Harlem Renaissance: Hub of African-American Culture, 1920–1930. New York: Pantheon, 1995.
White, Edward. The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2014.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I declared this book finished more than a decade ago. Then, like so many first novels, it languished as other writing projects intervened, including the prequel companion novel that became Relative Fortunes. Its publication brought Julia Kydd into the world, and now this book plunges her into the lively cultural vortex that was New York in the 1920s.
I’m grateful to encouraging early readers, especially Emily Chamberlain, Kathleen Thorne, and my sister, Laura Bjornson. More recently, I’m deeply grateful to Joyce Simons, who helped me breathe new life into this story, and to Susie Rennels, for her always-perceptive comments.
Many thanks also to my agent, Amanda Jain, and the terrific team at Lake Union—particularly my editor, Chris Werner; Tiffany Yates Martin; Riam Griswold; and Stephanie Chou—whose insights and expertise helped make this a much better book. And I’m grateful to my husband, Paul, as always, as ever.
DISCUSSION GUIDE
I hope this novel stirs many questions in readers’ minds. Here are a few to start the discussion:
Julia cares deeply about Christophine, yet they are neither family nor friends in the conventional sense. Why is their relationship complicated, and how does it evolve?
Pablo Duveen proclaims himself a champion of black people, eagerly promoting Harlem’s lively nightclub culture and emerging writers. How do Eva, Logan, and Jerome feel about his patronage, and why? How does it help them, and how does it hinder them?
Scholars talk about “the gaze” and the power relationship between those who are looked at and those who look. What undercurrents—psychological and historical—did you sense on the several occasions when black characters perform for white audiences?
What does Julia mean when she remarks that everyone passes in some way? Do you agree? Why does racial passing in particular often provoke volatile reactions?
Julia observes that American society renders black people largely invisible to whites. What made this possible in the 1920s? In what ways have things changed, or not?
What motivates Julia to find the truth of Timson’s murder? How does race complicate her decision as well as her undertaking?
Logan Lanier resents being labeled a black poet. Similarly, Julia chafes at the term lady printer. What are the merits—and hazards—of highlighting race, gender, and other aspects of identity?
Consider the various kinds of power and will exercised in the final confrontation involving Eva, Jerome, and Wallace. How does race affect their respective options and choices?
Julia declares confidence in her ability to judge men’s characters. In her dealings with Philip, Wallace, Jerome, and Logan, how accurate does her assertion prove to be?
Throughout the novel Julia becomes aware, sometimes painfully, of her cultural blind spots. What does she come to learn about herself?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © 2019 Keith Brofsky
Born near Boston, Marlowe Benn grew up in an Illinois college town along the Mississippi River. She holds a master’s degree in the book arts from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in the history of books from the University of California, Berkeley. A former editor, college teacher, and letterpress printer, Benn lives with her husband on an island near Seattle. Passing Fancies is the second novel in the Julia Kydd series.
