{"product_id":"miss-anne-in-harlem-the-white-women-of-the-black-renaissance-isbn-9780060882389","title":"Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance","description":"\u003cp\u003eCelebrated scholar Carla Kaplan’s cultural biography, \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance\u003c\/em\u003e, focuses on white women, collectively called “Miss Anne,” who became Harlem Renaissance insiders.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe 1920s in New York City was a time of freedom, experimentation, and passion—with Harlem at the epicenter. White men could go uptown to see jazz and modern dance, but women who embraced black culture too enthusiastically could be ostracized.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e focuses on six of the unconventional, free-thinking women, some from Manhattan high society, many Jewish, who crossed race lines and defied social conventions to become a part of the culture and heartbeat of Harlem.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eEthnic and gender studies professor Carla Kaplan brings the interracial history of the Harlem Renaissance to life with vivid prose, extensive research, and period photographs.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003eWinner, Julia Ward Howe Prize\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Notable Book\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e, \"Ten Best\" Books of 2013\u003cbr\u003eNPR, \"Best of 2013\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestseller\u003cbr\u003e\"Must Read\" Book, Massachusetts Book Awards\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNew York City in the Jazz Age was host to a pulsating artistic and social revolution. Uptown, an unprecedented explosion in black music, literature, dance, and art sparked the Harlem Renaissance. While the history of this African-American awakening has been widely explored, one chapter remains untold: the story of a group of women collectively dubbed \"Miss Anne.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSexualized and sensationalized in the mainstream press—portrayed as monstrous or insane—Miss Anne was sometimes derided within her chosen community of Harlem as well. While it was socially acceptable for white men to head uptown for \"exotic\" dancers and \"hot\" jazz, white women who were enthralled by life on West 125th Street took chances. \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e introduces these women—many from New York's wealthiest social echelons—who became patrons of, and romantic participants in, the Harlem Renaissance. They include Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, Texas heiress Josephine Cogdell Schuyler, British activist Nancy Cunard, philanthropist Charlotte Osgood Mason, educator Lillian E. Wood, and novelist Fannie Hurst—all women of accomplishment and renown in their day. Yet their contributions as hostesses, editors, activists, patrons, writers, friends, and lovers often went unacknowledged and have been lost to history until now.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a vibrant blend of social history and biography, award-winning writer Carla Kaplan offers a joint portrait of six iconoclastic women who risked ostracism to follow their inclinations—and raised hot-button issues of race, gender, class, and sexuality in the bargain. Returning Miss Anne to her rightful place in the interracial history of the Harlem Renaissance, Kaplan's formidable work remaps the landscape of the 1920s, alters our perception of this historical moment, and brings Miss Anne to vivid life.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Carla Kaplan has given us and history a great gift.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Journal of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An intriguing slice of long-overlooked American history.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kaplan always writes from inside her characters, and with a novelist’s sense of scope—and compassion.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHilton Als, New Yorker.com\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“(Kaplan’s) extensive research has given life to a critical period in black American history-and given credit to the white women who, for various reasons, helped the Harlem Renaissance flourish.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR.org\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this remarkable work of historical recovery . . . [Kaplan] resurrects Miss Anne as a cultural figure and explores the messy contradictions of her life . . . deeply researched.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[R]ichly researched, thoughtful new book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] revelatory book. . . . Happily, there’s been so much written on the Harlem Renaissance that the subject seems a bit mined-out; until, that is, a book like Kaplan’s comes along and leaves a reader reeling. . . . Aside from its significance as cultural history, Miss Anne in Harlem is packed with amazing life stories.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNPR's Fresh Air\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In her clear-sighted, empathetic assessment of a half-dozen of these women, Carla Kaplan casts a fresh eye over people and relationships too often reduced to stereotypes.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[An] intriguing new book.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post Book World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“With superb, exhaustive research and finely dramatic writing, Carla Kaplan’s brilliant \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e fills an aching void in our knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance. It also significantly deepens our understanding of American culture in the 1920s and American feminism in general.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eArnold Rampersad, author of The Life of Langston Hughes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this utterly fascinating and deeply insightful account, Carla Kaplan reveals the disparate women who together became “Miss Anne” in the Harlem Renaissance. From the reticent Annie Nathan Meyer through the manipulative Charlotte Osgood Mason to the flamboyant Nancy Cunard, they could see themselves as better Negroes than actual black people and despise other whites in black milieu. Yet they challenged the meanings of race and gender in ways that still deserve attention. This fine book takes the Misses Anne seriously and goes further, to reveal the workings of interracial networks in one of the most important cultural phenomena in American history.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNell Irvin Painter, author of The History of White People\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“The fact that white women played a pivotal role in creating the Harlem Renaissance was a secret hiding in plain sight, but it took Carla Kaplan’s keen eye, rigorous research, and crystal clear prose to reveal it. \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e is a surprising, delightful book, that will soon be essential reading for anyone interested in the Harlem Renaissance and the brave, bold women of the Jazz Age.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDebby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Carla Kaplan has taken on a dauntingly liminal topic and by force of scholarly rigor and narrative compassion rendered it central to our understanding of an era. Lush, original, and vigorously argued, \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e does justice to the difficult richness not only of these exceptional women’s lives but of life itself.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDiane McWhorter, author of Carry Me Home\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Professor Kaplan, a biographer of the writer Zora Neale Hurston, captivatingly illuminates and places in overdue perspective.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Kaplan has made the letters remarkably accessible.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times, on Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“ [An] epic collection . . . .The arrival of these letters is like a beacon cast on Hurston’s life.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOrlando Sentinel, on Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A work of meticulous and far-ranging scholarship, Carla Kaplan’s \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem\u003c\/em\u003e matches its characters’ shocking and subversive lives with explosive revelations and subtle insights. Kaplan has assembled an unforgettable ensemble cast of race-rebels, ‘traitors to whiteness,’ who gave their full resources-talent, compassion, money, ingenuity-to the cause of black cultural liberation a half-century before America discovered that ‘black is beautiful.’ A story of Harlem Renaissance insiders who would always be outsiders, Kaplan’s haunting narrative forces a rethinking of race and gender.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMegan Marshall, author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life and The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Endlessly fascinating, Miss Anne in Harlem reveals a whole new perspective on the Harlem Renaissance, and Carla Kaplan delivers an essential and absorbing portrait of race and sex in 20th century America.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGilbert King, author of Devil in the Grove\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“An empathetic and skillful writer, Kaplan . . . shares the previously untold story of a group of notable white women who embraced black culture--and life--in Harlem in the 1920s and ‘30s. . . . Captivating.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Each biography is shaped by Kaplan’s vivid scene-setting, historical perspective, psychological sensitivity, narrative panache, and frank analysis of the virulent sexism and racism of 1920s America and the confluence in Harlem of grim social conundrums and a spectacular creative flowering. . . . Kaplan’s meticulously documented and intrepid history of Miss Anne encompasses a unique vantage on the complexities of race and gender and a dramatic study in paradox.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A wonderful addition to what we need to understand about a spirited, extraordinary life.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAlice Walker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In these letters we encounter Zora Neale Hurston as if for the first time.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHenry Louis Gates Jr.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Smart, sparkling lettters. . . . A fascinating collection” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eO, the Oprah Magazine, on Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889279332581,"sku":"NP9780060882389","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780060882389.jpg?v=1730230910","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/miss-anne-in-harlem-the-white-women-of-the-black-renaissance-isbn-9780060882389","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}