Cane by Jean Toomer

Caneis considered the first novel of the Harlem Renaissance, and today is revered as a classic.This collection was originally published in 1923, sold 500 copies, and then disappeared until it was re-discovered in the 1960s (two years after the author's death). Considered ‘High Modernist’ the novel is composed of vignettes including narrative prose, poetry, and dialogue, moving in a circular fashion to combine life experiences of black in the rural south and urban north.

A masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance and a canonical work in both the American and the African-American literary traditions. "A breakthrough in prose and poetical writing . . . This book should be on all readers' and writers' desks and in their minds."--Maya Angelou.