Unnatural Selections: Eugenics in American Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance

283 Pages·2004·2.08 MB·English

by  Daylanne K. English

u n n a t u r a l s e l e c t i o n s

u n n a t u r a l s e l e c t i o n s
e u g e n i c s i n a m e r i c a n m o d e r n i s m
a n d t h e h a r l e m r e n a i s s a n c e
d a y l a n n e k. e n g l i s h
The University of North Carolina Press \ Chapel Hill and London
©2004 The University of North Carolina Press
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Publication of this work was aided by a generous
grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
English, Daylanne K.
Unnatural selections: eugenics in American
modernism and the Harlem Renaissance /
by Daylanne K. English.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
isbn0-8078-2868-8 (cloth: alk. paper)
isbn0-8078-5531-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. American literature—2oth century—History and
criticism. 2. Eugenics in literature. 3. American
literature—African American authors—History and
criticism. 4. American literature—White authors—
History and criticism. 5. Modernism (Literature)—
United States. 6. African Americans in literature.
7. Harlem Renaissance. 8. Race in literature.
I. Title.
ps228.e84e54 2004
810.9'3556—dc22 2003021778
cloth 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
paper 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
Chapter 1 has been adapted from “W. E. B. Du Bois’s
Family Crisis,” American Literature72, no. 2 (June 2000):
291–319; copyright ©2000 Duke University Press.
Chapter 3 originally appeared, in somewhat diVerent
form, under the title “Gertrude Stein and the Politics
of Literary-Medical Experimentation,” in Literature and
Medicine16, no. 2 (1997): 188–209; copyright ©1997
The Johns Hopkins University Press. Used with
permission of the copyright holders.
i dedicate this book to the staff and patients
of lynn community health center in lynn,
massachusetts. their experiences and mine
with them are the origin of this project.

c o n t e n t s
ix List of Illustrations
xi Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
35 One. W. E. B. Du Bois’s Family Crisis
65 Two. T. S. Eliot’s Strange Gods:
Celibacy, Hierarchy, and Tradition
93 Three. The Making and Delivering of Americans
in Gertrude Stein’s Early Writings, 1903–1925
117 Four. Blessed Are the Barren:
Lynching, Reproduction, and the Drama
of New Negro Womanhood, 1916–1930
141 Five. New White Women:
The U.S. Eugenic Family Studies
Field Workers, 1910–1918
177 Conclusion
187 Notes
235 Bibliography
261 Index

i l l u s t r a t i o n s
4 Eugenics Building at the Kansas Free Fair, 1929
12 Exhibit used at fitter families contests, 1920s
19 Examiners for a fitter families contest at the Michigan
State Fair
31 Winners of fitter families contests at the Kansas Free Fair
48 “A teacher’s family,” Crisis, October 1916
50 NAACP “prize babies,” Crisis, December 1925
51 A prize baby, 1914 Children’s Number of the Crisis
51 Cover of the initial issue of the Crisis, November 1910
54 NAACP branch presidents, Crisis, January 1927
56 Wedding portrait of Mrs. Yolande Du Bois Cullen, 1928
58 Countée Cullen and ushers at his wedding to
Yolande Du Bois
130 Playbill for Angelina Weld Grimké’s Rachel, 1916
150 Eugenics field worker training, 1910s
154 Letter from a volunteer collaborator to Charles Davenport,
1916
156 “Tenderness-Sympathy Test” for eugenics field workers in
training, 1910s–1920s
164 Genealogical charts in The Kallikak Family(1912)
168 Deborah Kallikak, c. 1912
170 Kallikak family members, c. 1912