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Angelina Grimke
“I think most poems
that I do are the reflections of moods.”
-Angelina Grimke
Biography
Criticism
In a time when black writers were finally beginning to
attract some attention in the world of literature, Angelina Grimke, so
delicately, began to make her mark on the literary world as only she
could
through the theme, which she favored most, love.
Born to a mulatto former slave and a white woman on February
27, 1880, in Boston,
Massachusetts,
Angelina Grimke was named in
memory of her great-aunt Angelina Weld Grimke.
She is often confused with this older aunt who
was a well-known southern
white abolitionist and a member of one of the most famous interracial
families
in America’s
history. At age 5, Grimke was rejected by her mother, and was raised by
her
father who was a prominent lawyer and diplomat.
Angelina had been born into a distinguished family and as a
result was educated, unlike her peers, in some of the most prestigious
schools,
which enabled her to become such an intellectual. In 1902, she
graduated from
the Boston Normal School of Gymnastics with a degree in physical
education, and
in the summers from 1906 to 1910 she studied at Harvard.
She briefly began a career as a gym teacher
at Armstrong Manual
Training School
in Washington, D.C.,
but later transferred to M Street high School in 1907, where she then
taught English
until she retired from there in 1926.
Many wonder why the intellectually gifted
Grimke decided to pursue a
degree in physical education anyway, and it is suggested by Carolivia
Herron in
the introduction to Selected Works
of Angelina Weld Grimke that “as a closeted lesbian,
Grimke
found gymnastics attractive because it provided sublimated contact with
women.”
As a
result of her work it is undeniable that the tone of her writings took
on a sad
tone, perhaps because she was a closeted lesbian who was deeply
unhappy, and
frustrated because of her sexuality.
There is a note that Grimke wrote to a
suspected lover, Mamie Burrill,
on October 27, 1896. It is in that
letter that she alludes to the fact that there was a relationship
shared
between the two in their adolescent years.
Because Grimke’s writings reflected such a
strong lesbian tone is also
perceived to be one of the reasons that little of her work was printed
during
her life.
Angelina Grimke had been writing for much of her life, but
only few of her works were ever published in her lifetime.
Rachel
(1920), a play, is her only book to be published. This play deals with
the
effects of racism on middle class blacks citizens and lynching. This
play
according to Alain Locke and Montgomery Gregory is “ apparently the
first
successful drama written by a Negro and interpreted by Negro actors.”
Grimke
also wrote The Closing Door,
a piece that strongly
discourages black women of procreation due to the harshness that future
generations would face due to race. Some
of her other works also include The
Grave in the Corner, 1893;
The Black Finger, 1923; and Longing, 1901. Most of Grimke’s over 300 works were
written
between 1900 and 1920. Her later works were written in verse under the
themes
of homosexuality. These works and love
letters are all included in Herron’s collection from the Selected Works of Angelina Weld Grimke.
On June
10, 1958 Angelina Emily Grimke died alone in her apartment in New York, the
state she retired to upon her
father’s death. It is said that she died
not only saddened by her inability to find a life-long partner but
saddened by
the simple fact that she never achieved a full sense of happiness, such
as the
kind she so often discussed in her works.
In a final insult, she was acknowledged in her
obituary for her teaching
and not her writing.
Selected
Bibliography
Works
by the Author
The Grave in the Corner (1893)
To Theodore Weld on His Ninetieth Birthday
(1893)
Street Echoes (1894)
Longing (1901)
El Beso (1909)
To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten
Grimké (1915)
To the Dunbar High School
(1917)
The Black Finger (1923)
Works about the Author
Hull, Gloria T. Color,
Sex, and Poetry: Three Woman Writers of the Harlem
Renaissance.
Indiana:
UP, 1987.
Herron, Carolivia, ed. Selected Works of Angelina Weld
Grimke. New York: Oxford UP, 1991.
Perry, Mark. Lift Up Thy Voice: The Grimke Family's
Journey from Slaveholders to Civil
Rights Leaders. Viking,
2001.
Related Links
http://washingtonart.com/beltway/grimke.html
-A personal reflection on Angelina Grimke with insight
provided on her poetry.
http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?au=gri-169
-A link providing additional criticisms and biographical
information on Angelina Grimke.
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/authors/AngelinaWeldGrimke.html
-This is a
link that provides critical summaries of Angelina Grimke’s
works.
http://library.northernlight.com/ZZ19971224100189018.html
-A link
providing civisms of Angelina Grimke’s works.
This page was researched and
submitted by Tracey
Davis. Please contact the editor
with any questions or
suggestions. |
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