Review by Booklist Review
Murray's first solo biographical novel following her popular collaborations with Marie Benedict (most recently, The First Ladies, 2023) focuses on the so-called "midwife of the Harlem Renaissance," Jessie Redmon Fauset. Set during her years in New York as the literary editor of the NAACP's influential magazine, The Crisis, founded by W. E. B. DuBois, the novel explores Jessie's relationship with DuBois, who is her mentor, colleague, and, some say, lover. Murray uses the historical record as a springboard to imagine the complicated dynamic between Jessie; Will (as she calls him in private); Will's wife, Nina; and the other women with whom he was romantically involved. Murray also tells of how Jessie publishes rising Black writers, including Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, and Nella Larsen; spearheads the launch of a publication for children, The Brownies Book; and is a prolific writer herself. Jessie's ambition and conflicting ideas about the role of art (DuBois believed that art was only useful as a form of propaganda) eventually lead her to leave the magazine, and DuBois, for good. Murray's meticulous research brings this exciting period in American literary and artistic history into the spotlight and sheds a welcome light on an important and intriguing figure whose influence often goes unmentioned.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Murray (coauthor of The First Ladies) delivers a winning portrait of Harlem Renaissance figure Jessie Redmon Faust (1882--1961). Jessie moves to Harlem from Washington, D.C., in 1919 to serve as literary editor of NAACP magazine The Crisis, helmed by W.E.B. Du Bois. Faust is thrilled at the opportunity to provide a venue for Black writers and helps to make stars out of Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, but she risks her career and the magazine's reputation by having a secret affair with Du Bois, who is married. Murray illuminates Faust's steadfast and selfless work, showing how she labored behind the scenes to bring others to prominence while putting her own dream of writing a novel on hold, a sacrifice made bitter when she watches Du Bois receive the acclaim. Murray doesn't shy away from her characters' flaws, examining for instance Du Bois's disdain for uneducated Black people and Faust's mother's well-meaning if unhelpful chastening ("You are neither white nor a man, and so you'll be judged harshly and unfairly, even as you perform well"). Historical fiction fans will want to snatch this up. Agent: Liza Dawson, Lisa Dawson Assoc. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Murray ("7 Deadly Sins" series) presents an engaging account of an underappreciated yet pivotal figure in literary history. In 1919, high school teacher Jessie Redmon Fauset's passion for writing captures the attention of W.E.B. Du Bois and secures her a trailblazing job as the first Black woman literary editor at The Crisis, the NAACP magazine founded by Du Bois. An excited Jessie moves from Washington, DC, to New York City to start the job, but she's hiding a secret: Du Bois, Jessie's new boss, has also been her long-distance lover for years. Now that they're both in Harlem, it will be harder for Jessie and the married Du Bois to keep their affections hidden from everyone. As years pass, Jessie becomes a more and more integral part of The Crisis, especially in cultivating new young writing talents such as a 17-year-old Langston Hughes and a 16-year-old Countee Cullen. But when she finds herself clashing, both professionally and personally, with Du Bois, Jessie is faced with an agonizing choice between her loves. VERDICT While the historical facts could be more smoothly woven into the flow of the story, this bibliophilic novel will please fans of the bestselling historical novels that Murray coauthored with Marie Benedict (The Personal Librarian and The First Ladies).--Joy Gunn
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The life, work, and passion of Jessie Redmon Fauset, a lesser-known figure of the Harlem Renaissance, is examined in this historical novel. "You've birthed most of us. It's like you're a literary midwife": This is what her protégé Langston Hughes has to say to Fauset toward the end of Murray's novel. Fauset, a poet and novelist in her own right, is best remembered as the mentor of Harlem Renaissance luminaries including Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Claude McKay through her role as literary editor of theCrisis, a magazine founded by W.E.B. Du Bois and published by the NAACP. Not only did she rise to a position of prominence in the literary world--almost unheard of for a Black woman of her time--but she also went above and beyond to edit, uplift, and support her writers. One of the book's most exciting moments comes when Jessie first interacts with the delightfully precocious 17-year-old Hughes, who has just written "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"and whose work she will continually champion and refine. But Jessie's life is not without tribulation or scandal. Though we learn about her continual search to find a place for herself as a Black woman writer, much of the novel is taken up by her on-again, off-again affair with the married, and frequently prickly, Du Bois, whom she calls Will. (According to a historical note at the end of the book, Murray extrapolated the affair from information in David Levering Lewis'W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography, 1868--1963, which called the pair "star-crossed lovers.") At times, Jessie's bullheadedness can be irksome, and readers may grow tired of the time Murray spends detailing her repetitive, and often saccharine, meetings with Du Bois. But Jessie Redmon Fauset is such a captivating figure that Murray's success comes from bringing her accomplishments to greater attention. A celebration of a woman who worked behind the scenes. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
