Helene Johnson (July 7, 1906 – July 7, 1995) was an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

poet during the Harlem Renaissance. She was also a cousin of writer Dorothy West.

Career

Johnson's literary career began when she won first prize in a short story competition sponsored by the ''

Boston Chronicle The ''Boston Chronicle'' was an American colonial newspaper published briefly from December 21, 1767, until 1770 in Boston, Massachusetts. The publishers, John Mein and John Fleeming, were both from Scotland. The ''Chronicle'' was a Loyalist p ...

''. She also received an honorable mention in a poetry contest organized by ''

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'', the journal of the

National Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...

that was a leading showcase for the talents of African-American artists. She reached the height of her popularity in 1927 when her poem "Bottled" was published in the May issue of '' Vanity Fair''. In 1935, Johnson’s last published poems appeared in ''Challenge: A Literary Quarterly''. She continued to write a poem a day for the rest of her life.

Personal life

Johnson, whose given name was Helen, spent her early years at her grandfather’s house in Boston. The rest of her formative years were spent in Brookline, Massachusetts. She and Dorothy West moved to Harlem in the 1920s, where they became friends with such artists as Zora Neale Hurston. Johnson attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, but did not graduate. In 1933, Johnson married William Warner Hubbell III. The couple had one child, Abigail, before divorcing. Johnson died in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at the age of 88.

References

*Shockley, Ann Allen. ''African-American Women Writers 1746-1933: An Anthology and Critical Guide''. New Haven, Connecticut: Meridian Books. *Patton, Venetria K., Maureen Honey. Double Take: A Revisionist Harlem Renaissance Anthology. Rutgers University Press (2001).

External links

Review of ''This Waiting for Love by Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance'' AA Registry Entry for Helene Johnson.''Essential Poems (To Fall in Love With) by Daisy Goodwin'' (contains Helene Johnson's poem, "Futility")
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Helene 1906 births 1995 deaths People from Brookline, Massachusetts African-American women writers African-American poets American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American writers