'Harlem Rhapsody' is a novel about an affair at the heart of the Harlem Renaissance

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 6 March 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

A while back, Victoria Christopher Murray set out on a mission to learn about the women of the Harlem Renaissance. But in her research, she mostly found stories about men – until she came across Jessie Redmon Fauset. Fauset, whom Langston Hughes called "the midwife of the Harlem Renaissance," was a writer who eventually became literary editor at The Crisis, the NAACP's magazine. Her life serves as inspiration for Murray's new historical fiction novel Harlem Rhapsody. In today's episode, Murray speaks with NPR's Pien Huang about the historical impact of Fauset's romantic relationship with W.E.B. Du Bois and Murray's decision to include the affair in the book.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Amper's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. When you're writing historical fiction,
0:07.2	what do you keep it? And what do you leave out? The freedom of doing fiction is that you can
0:11.8	pick and choose what you need, right? Whatever serves the narrative best. But author Victoria
0:16.8	Christopher Murray says something interesting about that in today's episode.
0:26.0	She is the author of the book Harlem Rhapsody about the writer and editor Jesse Redmond Fawcett and her affair with the black activist, W.E.B. Du Bois during the Harlem Renaissance.
0:31.4	And in this interview with NPR's Ping Huang, Murray talks about trying to write the book
0:36.1	without the affair to just focus on Fawcett and her impact on the Harlem Renaissance.
0:41.6	But for reasons she gets into, the story just didn't work without it.
0:47.1	That's coming out.
0:48.6	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:53.4	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:57.9	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.0	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:03.8	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:07.6	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:12.9	A new book is a reader's delight for the who's who it features in its pages.
1:17.8	Harlem Rhapsody is a novel that serves as a love letter to the heart of black creativity and possibility in the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance.
1:26.2	And at the center of that love letter is a love story,
1:29.4	the hidden relationship between black activist W.E.B. De Bois and Jesse Redmond Fawcett,
1:35.4	writer and literary editor of the N.A.C.P. Magazine, The Crisis. Victoria Christopher
1:40.8	Murray brings all of us to life in her new novel, and she joins me now. Welcome.
1:45.0	Thank you. Thank you for having me.
	...

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