Harlem Renaissance Treasures
Discover essential Harlem Renaissance treasures in this curated book list, featuring Zora Neale Hurston's *Their Eyes Were Watching God*, Nella Larsen's *Quicksand and Passing*, and Wallace Thurman's *Blacker the Berry*. Explore iconic fiction that defines the era's literary genius.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.
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Quicksand and Passing
by Nella Larsen
Two novels of 1920s Harlem describe Helga Crane's search for freedom and personal expression, and Irene's friendship with Clare, who attempts to pass for white.
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Blacker the Berry...
by Wallace Thurman
This widely read, controversial work from the Harlem Renaissance was the first novel to openly explore prejudice within the black community. A young woman, whose dark complexion is a source of sorrow and humiliation not only to herself but to her lighter-skinned family and friends, travels from Boise, Idaho, to New York's Harlem, hoping to find a safe haven in the Black Mecca of the 1920s.
