An Introduction to Dumas

Alexandre Dumas had a big appetite for living large and luxurious, and found himself constantly making and spending fortunes as well as creating beautiful historical fiction and other works of literature.
Alexandre Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie was born in 1802 in Picardi, France, to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas and Marie-Louise Élisabeth Labouret. His grandfather was a marquis who fell in love and had a son (Thomas-Alexandre) with a French-Creole woman in what is now known as Haiti. Falling from grace with Napoleon as he served in the military, Thomas-Alexandre lost his pension and later died, leaving his family destitute. Marie-Louise Elisabeth found herself struggling to provide not only an income for her family, but also an education for the young Alexandre. Not having any interest in education, but having beautiful handwriting, Dumas was able to find work as a notary and eventually found himself in the literary world.
Dumas came on stage with melodramatic plays and historical fiction novels which were first published serially in newspaper journals. His flare for the dramatic and colorful scenes quickly made sales rise and put money in his pockets. His work was assisted through the use and collaboration of other assistants and writers, though each work was reworked in his own hand. His prolific work of 250 books was aided through his varied use of 73 assistants. He was also inspired by historical and current events, especially in the case of The Count of Monte Cristo, which was inspired by the account of a shoemaker similarly imprisoned by jealous men.
The success Dumas was endowed with brought many female admirers and lovers. He sired at least three children out of wedlock, namely a son of the same name who also would become a great writer. To differentiate these two, the titles Alexandre Dumas, père (our writer of The Count of Monte Cristo) and Alexandre Dumas, fils are used. These terms are the French form of "father" and "son" respectively.
Alexandre Dumas built his own Chateau de Monte Cristo which he quickly could not afford and escaped to Brussles to avoid his creditors. He died in December 1870 after suffering a stroke and was buried in Villers-Cotterêts, his birthplace, but was exhumed in 2002 and placed in the Panthéon of Paris. He was writing up to his death, leaving a novel unfinished by a few chapters (The Last Cavalier).

The Harlem Renaissance in Brief

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the acclaimed writers that came to the forefront during the Harlem Renaissance, an interesting point of growth in African American culture.
The New Negro Movement, later titled the Harlem Renaissance, began in the early 1920's and continued into the 1930's. African Americans, after migrating to northern communities, began finding power in numbers with the influence and production of literature, art, and music. The goal of the New Negro Movement was to improve social and political relations in the United States. They desired to demonstrate the equality of humanity in the black culture with that of the white culture. However, there was some dispute over certain ideas of what was desirable to display in art, especially in the form of literature. The intellectual side wanted a more educated and "civilized" portrayal of their culture. Hurston found disfavor from some of her Harlem associates due to her use of the vernacular in her writings.
For more information about the Harlem Renaissance and other faces of the movement, give yourself a tour of Harlem.