Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the association, and with modernism. His reputation stems from his novel Cane (1923), which Toomer wrote during and after a stint as a school principal at a black school in rural Sparta, Georgia. The novel intertwines the stories of six women and includes an apparently autobiographical thread; sociologist Charles S. Johnson called it "the most astonishingly brilliant beginning of any Negro writer of his generation". He resisted being classified as a Negro writer, as he identified as "American". For more than a decade Toomer was an influential follower and representative of the pioneering spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. Later in life he took up Quakerism.

26 December 1894

Born on the same birth day (26 December): Albert Gore Sr. • Cecilia Costa Melgar • Charles Pathé • Craig Wing • Elisha Cook Jr. • Hans Nielsen (speedway rider) • Karel Rüütli • Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah • Mary Somerville • Pablo Canavosio • Raja Pervaiz Ashraf • Ruud Kaiser • Trevor Taylor (racing driver) • William Stephens (American politician) • Étienne Constantin de Gerlache

Born in the same month (December 1894): Alexander Nelke • Allie Vibert Douglas • Arthur Gilligan • E. C. Segar • Freddie Adkins • Josef Imbach (athlete) • Patrick Flynn (athlete) • Willem Schermerhorn