Jean_Toomer

Jean Toomer Jean Toomer (1894-1967) “I am of no particular race. I am of the human race, a man at large in the human world, preparing a new race.”(Wagner) These are the famous words of Jean Toomer, a writer and philosopher. Toomer’s life was consumed by an undying search for spiritual wholeness. He hated for things to be categorized and separated because of the certain characteristics of this group or item. His whole life was driven at being different from everyone else. He wrote poetry, novels, and short stories; and through his life he faced many trials and tribulations.(McKay) Nathan Eugene Toomer was born December 26, 1894, in Pennsylvania, to Nathan Toomer and Nina Pinchback. Nathan Toomer, Jean’s father, was twenty-seven years-older than Nina Pinchback, and Nina’s father, P.B.S. Pinchback, believed that he was not a suitable husband for his daughter. He believed Nathan Toomer was unreliable and an unscrupulous businessman; however, Pinchback did not prevent the marriage of his daughter to this man. Three months after the wedding Nathan Toomer left pregnant bride and did not return until three days before the birth of his son, Nathan Pinchback Toomer. Six weeks after his birth toomer, life, first, american, one, black, jean, after, because, writers, pinchback, new, cane, year, wisconsin, race, people, nina, nathan, lived, harlem, experiment, called, began, about, years, world, very, took, time, six, poem, part, out, never