Arna bontemps and biography

Arna Wendell Bontemps was born on October 13, 1902, in Alexandria, Louisiana, the son of a Creole bricklayer and a schoolteacher.

The return arna bontemps

The return arna bontemps

Arna bontemps poems

Length of moon arna bontemps

Arna Wendell Bontemps was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.

Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, but moved with his family to Los Angeles at age three.

At age three, he and his family moved to Los Angeles after his father was mortally threatened by two drunk white men. Bontemps grew up in California and was sent to the San Fernando Academy boarding school with his father’s instruction to not “go up there acting colored.” Bontemps later noted this as a formative moment, and he would resent what he saw as an effort to make him forget his African American heritage.

He graduated from Pacific Union College in Angwin in 1923 with a bachelor of arts degree.

In 1924, Bontemps accepted a teaching position in Harlem, New York. He married Alberta Johnson, a former student, in 1926; they would eventually have six children.

Though his original plan was to obtain his PhD in English, he accepted teaching positions to support his family. While teaching in Harlem, he became closely associated to figure