杰西·弗塞特

杰西·雷德蒙·福塞特（Jessie Redmon Fauset 1882年4月27日—1961年4月30日）是一名美国作家、诗人、编辑，哈莱姆文艺复兴重要人物、《危机》杂志编辑，成名作为《葡萄干面包》（Plum Bun，1928）。

生平

她出生于康登县的一个穷人家庭，父亲早逝。她通过自己的努力，自费城女子高中（Philadelphia High School for Girls）毕业，在毕业典礼上致告别辞，可能也是该学校第一位非裔毕业生。她本打算就读布林茅尔学院，但布林茅尔学院的院长筹钱送她前往康奈尔大学，以避免布林茅尔接纳黑人。

1905年，她自康奈尔大学毕业，后在宾夕法尼亚大学攻读法语硕士，1919年毕业。毕业后她在华盛顿特区的邓巴高中（Dunbar High School）教法语和拉丁文，1919年成为《危机》编辑。1926年离开杂志社，进入纽约市的德怀特·克林顿高中（DeWitt Clinton High School）教书。

Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882 – April 30, 1961) was an American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. Her black fictional characters were working professionals which was an inconceivable concept to American society during this time. Her story lines related to themes of racial discrimination, "passing", and feminism.

From 1919 to 1926, Fauset's position as literary editor of The Crisis, an NAACP magazine, allowed her to contribute to the Harlem Renaissance by promoting literary work that related to the social movements of this era. Through her work as a literary editor and reviewer, she encouraged black writers to represent the African-American community realistically and positively.

Before and after working on The Crisis, she worked for decades as a French teacher in public schools in Washington, DC, and New York City. She published four novels during the 1920s and 1930s, exploring the lives of the black middle class. She also was the editor and co-author of the African-American children's magazine The Brownies' Book.

She is known for discovering and mentoring other African-American writers, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay.

Life and work

She was born Jessie Redmona Fauset (later known as Jessie Redmon Fauset) on April 27, 1882, in Fredericksville, Camden County, Snow Hill Center Township, New Jersey (now known as Lawnside, New Jersey).

She was the seventh child of Redmon Fauset, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, and Annie (née Seamon) Fauset. Jessie's mother died when she was young, and her father remarried. He had three children with his second wife Bella, a white Jewish woman who converted to Christianity. Bella brought three children to the family from her first marriage. Both parents emphasized education for their children. Civil rights activist and anthropologist Arthur Fauset was her half-brother. Her father died when she was young; two of her half-siblings were still under the age of five. She attended the Philadelphia High School for Girls, the city's top academic school. She graduated as valedictorian of her class and likely the school's first African-American graduate. She wanted to study at Bryn Mawr College, and the valedictorian of Girls' High was traditionally awarded a scholarship to the college. However, Bryn Mawr president M. Carey Thomas raised money for Fauset to attend Cornell University instead. Carey Thomas would prevent any black or Jewish students from attending Bryn Mawr during her tenure.

She continued her education at Cornell University in upstate New York, graduating in 1905 with a degree in classical languages. During her time at Cornell University in 1903 through part of 1904, Fauset lived at Sage College. She would win Phi Beta Kappa honors. For many years she was considered to be the first black woman accepted to Phi Beta Kappa society, but later research revealed this was actually Mary Annette Anderson. Fauset later received her master's degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania (1919).

Following college, Fauset became a teacher at Dunbar High School (then named as M Street High School), the academic high school for black students in Washington, DC, which had a segregated public school system. She taught French and Latin, and went to Paris for the summers to study at la Sorbonne.

In 1919, Fauset left teaching to become the literary editor for The Crisis, founded by W. E. B. Du Bois of the NAACP. She served in that position until 1926. Fauset became a member of the NAACP and represented them in the Pan African Congress in 1921. After her Congress speech, the Delta Sigma Theta sorority made her an honorary member.