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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936 Hardcover - 1990

by Byrd, Rudolph P


From the publisher

Jean Toomer (1894-1967) earned his place in American literary history with Cane (1923), a brilliant modernist collage of fiction, poetry, and drama about black life in rural Georgia and the urban North. Although Toomer continued to write prodigiously, his work went largely unpublished as he turned away from an exploration of his African American roots he had employed so powerfully in Cane. Rudolph P. Byrd examines the central reason behind Toomer's literary decline: his enthusiasm for the theories of George Gurdjieff, a contemporary Russian psychologist, philosopher, and mystic. As Toomer's work degenerated into propaganda for Gurdjieff's theories on human development and spiritual reforms, publishers turned away. Yet, Byrd makes clear that the works Toomer wrote after 1923 do not represent the total break from his earlier concerns that critics have generally assumed. Examining both Cane and the body of writings Toomer produced after it, Byrd finds a distinct thematic unity in the Toomer canon--a consistent, optimistic faith in human possibility and wholeness.

Details

  • Title Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
  • Author Byrd, Rudolph P
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Publisher Univ of Georgia Pr, Athens, Ga
  • Date 1990
  • ISBN 9780820312484

About the author

RUDOLPH P. BYRD (1953-2011) was a professor of African American Literature and director of African American Studies, Emory University.
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff : Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff : Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff : Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff : Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

by Rudolph P. Byrd

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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist 1923-1936

by Byrd, Rudolph P.

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Athens, Ga: University of Georgia Press. Fine copy in fine dust jacket. 1990. 1st. hardcover. 8vo, 212 pp. .
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Jean Toomer's Years With Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years With Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

by Rudolph P. Byrd

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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

by Byrd, Rudolph P

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University of Georgia Press, 1991-01-01. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardback with dust jacket. No marks and no writings.
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Jean Toomer's Years With Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936
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Jean Toomer's Years With Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

by Byrd, Rudolph P.

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  • Hardcover
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Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1990. Book. Very Good. Hardcover. 212pp. Faint corner crease to front endpaper, otherwise VG in mylar-protected dust jacket..
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist 1923-1936.

Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist 1923-1936.

by [Gurdjieff] Byrd, Rudolph P.

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Athens:: University of Georgia Press,, 1990.. First Printing of the First Edition. A Fine tight copy in a Fine bright dust jacket. The author traces author Jean Toomer's literary decline, after his exploration of African-American roots in his book "Cane", as he became more involved in the theories and teachings of George Gurdjieff from 1924 into the 1930s. Toomer was hailed as a fresh and important African-American literary voice in the early Twenties but never fulfilled his true potential as a writer once he turned to writing on behalf of Gurdjieff's philosophy.
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Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

Jean Toomer's Years with Gurdjieff: Portrait of an Artist, 1923-1936

by Byrd, Rudolph P

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Hardcover
ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
9780820312484 / 0820312487
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University of Georgia Press, 1991-01-01. Hardcover. Clean & Unmarked /Very Good. 9x6x1. Signed by Author. Inscribed by the author on the front free end-paper. Otherwise clean and straight with clean text and a strong binding. Dust jacket has some rubbing at extremities with a scuff and a scratch on rear, nearly invisible. 212 pp.
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