Impermanent Blackness: The Making and Unmaking of Interracial Literary Culture in Modern America

This sharp debut from Garibaldi, an American studies professor at the University of Notre Dame, traces the relationship between Black authors and predominantly white publishing firms from the 1910s through the 1960s. He tells the stories of Black authors who worked with white publishers and editors to push the “boundaries of what Black writing was and what counted as ‘American’ and ‘African American’ literature.” Garibaldi describes the growing popularity of Black authors in the first half of the 20th century, highlighting how Frank Yerby became the “most commercially successful African American author of his generation” with such novels as The Foxes of Harrow (1946). However, Garibaldi notes that there was ambiguity in the support of even the most well-intentioned white supporters of Black literature; for example, Harriet Monroe, publisher of the literary journal Poetry, supported “inter-racial thought” but also promoted white authors who exoticized Blackness. Garibaldi concludes with an examination of how, in the 1960s, the failure of white publishers to make the industry more equitable produced disillusionment with “interracialism” as Black interracialists drew scorn for “not being Black enough.” The history is eye-opening and Garibaldi’s conclusions regarding the “challenges and opportunities that underpin commitments to building an inclusive American society” are timely and penetrating. This is a vital look at a transformative era in American literature. Photos. (Feb.)