Fenton Johnson (poet)
| Fenton Johnson | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 7, 1888 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | September 17, 1958 (aged 70) Chicago, Illinois |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater |
Northwestern University University of Chicago Columbia University |
| Genre | Poetry |
Fenton Johnson (May 7, 1888 – September 17, 1958) was an American poet, essayist, author of short stories, editor, and educator.
Johnson was born on May 7, 1888 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Elijah and Jesse (Taylor) Johnson. His father, Elijah Johnson, was a railroad porter and his family was one of the wealthiest African American families in Chicago during this time. That his family owned the State Street building in which they lived provides evidence of such a financial security. According to a biographical note by Arna Bontemps, Johnson is anecdotally described as being “a dapper boy who drove his own electric automobile around Chicago.” Growing up, Johnson recounts himself as "having scribbled since the age of nine," but even despite these indications of a literary inclination, Johnson did not initially plan to embark on a career in letters, and certainly not poetry specifically. Rather, throughout this childhood, Johnson intended to pursue an office in the clergy.
The entirely of Johnson’s childhood was spent in Chicago, and he received his secondary education at various secondary public schools in the city, including Englewood High School and Wendell Phillips High School. Johnson first began his undergraduate education at Northwestern University, which he attended from 1908-1909. He went on to complete his degree at the University of Chicago. Johnson later received a degree from the Columbia University Pulitzer School of Journalism.
Following his graduation from the University of Chicago, Fenton worked as a messenger and in the post office before he began to teach English at the State University of Louisville, which was a private, black, Baptist-owned institution in Kentucky that would later would become Simmons College. He only taught at the State University of Louisville from 1910-1911, and returned to Chicago in 1911 to concentrate on his literary career.
In 1913, Johnson published his first volume of poetry, A Little Dreaming. The collection was a self-published work, along with his next two collections, Visions of the Dusk (1915) and Songs of the Soil (1916). But between the release of his first and second collection of poetry, Fenton Johnson moved to New York, where he completed his degree at the Pulitzer School of Journalism with the financial support of a benefactor.
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