This image is the cover for the book Plum Bun

Plum Bun

A young woman hides her African American identity in this semiautobiographical novel by a literary “force to be reckoned with” of the Harlem Renaissance (Shonda Rhimes).

A young girl, Angela Murray lives in Philadelphia’s black community, but after losing both of her parents, she decides to leave her sister behind and move to New York. With her light skin tone, she can pass for white and, perhaps, escape the burden of racism and find the freedom to succeed. Once in the city, she looks for new opportunities, finds a place for herself among a community of artists, and becomes romantically involved with a member of the white social elite. But Angela’s deception comes at a painful cost, and—as a woman—she learns that racial prejudice is not the only obstacle she needs to overcome.

Incorporating many aspects of the author’s own experience, Plum Bun comes from a writer praised by W. E. B. duBois, who noted the novel’s “human touch and interesting action and plot.”

Jessie Redmon Fauset

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an African American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary 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, and her storylines related to themes of racial discrimination, “passing,” and feminism. Through her work as a literary editor and reviewer, Fauset discouraged Black writers from lessening the racial qualities of the characters in their work, and encouraged them to write honestly and openly about the African American experience. She published four novels during the 1920s and 1930s, exploring the lives of the black middle class. Fauset is known for discovering and mentoring other African American writers, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay.

Open Road Media