Arna Wendell Bontemps (1902-1973)
Teacher Resource File

Welcome to the Internet School Library Media Center's Arna Bontemps page. You will find biography, bibliography, e-texts, lesson plans and other resources. Related pages include African American Authors - Online E-texts and Authors & Illustrators of Books for Children & Young Adults.
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Biography

Arna Wendell Bontemps was an important writer in the Harlem Renaissance.

He was born on October 13, 1902 in Alexandria, Louisiana. The family home is now the Arna Bontemps African American Museum and Cultural Arts Center.

From the age of three, Arna lived with his family in the Watts section of Los Angeles. His family moved to Los Angeles just three days before the San Francisco earthquake! His was a loving family. His parents always encouraged him in his education. He attended public schools and graduated in 1916 at the age of 17 from Pacific Union College [U.C.L.A.], having completed his degree in three years.

During his years at college, he became interested in writing. His first writings were poetry for which he received many awards. Like many African-American writers of the Harlem Renaissance, his poetry was published in The Crisis , a magazine published by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and edited by W. E. B. DuBois. His literary career began when his poem, "Hope," appeared in Crisis in 1917, just a year after he left college. His poem, "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" received a Crisis poetry prize in 1926. He also wrote essays, short stories, fiction, nonfiction and children's books. During this time period from, 1924 to 1931, he was a teacher in a private school, the Harlem Academy in New York City. He and his wife, a native of Georgia, had six children. He often said he began writing for children "in defense." He received professional training in librarianship at the Graduate School at the University of Chicago and served as the librarian at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1943 to 1966.

His children's book, Story of the Negro, was a 1949 Newbery Honor Book. He also received the Jane Addams Book Award for The Story of the Negro in 1956.

Visit Paul P. Reuben's Harlem Renaissance. See also Reuben's Timeline of Bontemps' Life. Several of Bontemps' works have been reprinted. For availability information, use Amazon Book Company or contact your local bookstore. Visit your school or public library for his books and other information. Books will be available on interlibrary loan as well.

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More Biography

Arnaud Wendell Bontemps

Arna Bontemps

Brief biography from African American Literature Book Club
Encarta Online. Arna Bontemps.

Arna Bontemps

Space down for biography. From Bedford/St. Martin's Press

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Lesson Plans

Understanding and Appreciating Poetry: AfroAmericans and Their Poetry
By Frances Ellen Pierce. Designed for 6th grade inner city students

Harlem Renaissance: Pivotal Period in the Development of Afro-American Culture

By Caroline Jackson. From Yale-New Haven Lesson Plans

Yet Do I Marvel: A Comparative Study of Black American Literature

By Gail Staggers. From Yale-New Haven Lesson Plans

In Search of Afro-American Poets in Modern Times

Unit plan; for Special Ed learning disabled and socially
malajusted students, grades 9-12. By Cynthia H. Roberts. From
Yale New Haven Lesson Plans

Arna Bontemps (1902-1973)

Classroom issues and strategies; themes; style; approaches
to writing.

African-American Poets Past and Present : A Historical View

Grades 3-5; recommended for Black History Month

Furious Flower : A Revolution in African American Poetry

By Joanne Gabbin. Good background material for teaching a unit
on African American poetry.

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Bibliography

Bontemps Bibliography
Works by Bontemps; works about Bontemps; ERIC resources and
selected articles

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E-Texts

"A Black Man Talks of Reaping"

Arna Bontemps

Includes "A Black Man Talks of Reaping," "God Give to Men,"
"Nocturne of the Wharves," and "Reconnaissance."

PHAT African American Poetry Book

Includes "A Black Man Talks of Reaping," "The Day-Breakers," and "Southern Mansion."

Fire!! A Quarterly Journal.... Poems

Space down. Poem by Bontemps "Length of Moon"

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