Dorothy West
1907-1998
Other Works
The Wedding
The Living Is Easy
Early Years Dorothy West was known to her fellow writers of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement of African American artists during the 1920s, as the "kid," a name that fit because she started writing at age seven and published her first article at fourteen. In the collections of stories and essays she called The Richer, the Poorer, West writes about the middle-class African American family in which she grew "I knew I wanted to be a writer," West says. "Living with them [her family] was like living inside a story." Later, friends such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston became another family for her.
Unique Personal View West encouraged African American writers. However, she also believed that "color is not important," that people should be understood as individuals influenced as much by class and values as by race. In this she disagreed with many activists of the sixties. Today, West's work is well-received. Her 1995 novel The Wedding became a bestseller and successful TV miniseries.
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