This obituary notice, written by Hughes Allison(N), author of the play, The Trial of Dr. Beck, was read at Wallace Thurman's funeral by the Rev. Dr. Lloyd Imes (brother of Elmer Imes, q.v.) of St. James Presbyterian Church, Harlem.

December 24, 1934

WALLACE THURMAN

In Salt Lake City, Utah, early in the year 1901, Beulah Thurman bore her husband, Oscar, a son whom they called Wallace. The boy followed the usual routine of solid growth -- play, the public schools, and then the steadying influence of College. He graduated from the University of Utah, leaping instantly after that mile-post of his life, into the riotous sea of the thing which amazed him, mystified him, struck him with everlasting awe -- the reasonable and unreasonable conduct of men.

He was most interested in that phase and atmosphere of men's reason which compelled them to express a stereotyped opinion of other men who like himself carried African blood. He chose the pen to express his own opinion. The ink he used was first dipped into a bottle holding dignity, taste and freedom, blended with a natural, bubbling humor before it began its task of illuminating an artistic correction of misconception.

Wallace Thurman was true to literature, sincere to his cause in choosing it as a medium of expression -- thus, when he came out of the West and into New York City, the men and women who really mattered recognized his worth and his merit and received him warmly and graciously. He had started a newspaper on the Pacific Coast, trying exceedingly hard to establish the movement of the "New Negro" there; but the Pacific Coast wasn't yet ready for such colorful renovation; and so Mr. Thurman -- determined to find other youth like himself -- came to Harlem where Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Aaron Douglas and Arna Bontemps were leading the darker valiant. Mr. Thurman's adjustment

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rose steadily, thereafter, from the level of three months of un-
employment and contact with the single individual he knew in New
York to a job on a newspaper that failed, to a job on the "Messenger"
to Circulation Manager of the "World Tomorrow". From then on his
life in his profession went up and up.

He met William Jordan Rapp, editor and author, whose recognition
of literary merit was instantaneous; he wrote a novel, "The Blacker
the Berry"; and with Mr. Rapp's collaboration, the novel became a
play called "Harlem", and Harlem moved to Broadway. Mr. Thurman
thus created history and social enlightenment, for he was the first
successful Negro Playwright on Broadway and his material joined Carl
Van Vechten's in making America color conscious.

But there was another side to Wallace Thurman's life. He was
not a snob; and he was aware that most men who write successfully are
snobs. He really kept open house -- to all, in all stations of life;
he was at home to social lions, to the pitifully mediocre, and even
to the less fortunate. He was willing to share his professional
and material success as well as his radiant personality with anyone
and everyone who needed him and his. But of all the things he had
to offer, his friends were most greedy in accepting his gift of a
sparkling, cheery atmosphere, clever humor, and congenial fun.

"Wallie", so all who knew him called him, took this rare and
magnificent human compound of energetic intelligence, artistic talent
and lively disposition wherever he want -- to the Macaulay Book
Publishers where he was, for a number of years, an editor; to the
homes of his friends; to Hollywood a few months back where he wrote
scenarios for motion pictures; to the hospital where he met his un-
timely end.

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Wallace Thurman's last years on earth dramatized his life. He made his ascent with the rise of the term "New Negro", and when that phase of his race's history seemed to take the down road, he remained at the top. He wrote a new novel, "The Infants of the Spring", warning those who had climbed the road with him that the decline of the "New Negro" movement was at hand, that it would be well to brace the wavering line, to turn to new literary subject matter. He illustrated his contention by writing "The Interne" with H. L. Furman, a novel of hospital life which dealt with people and not with a racial group or a problem.

And then this young man, who made a great name for himself and history for his people, lived the last act in a drama of his own making. An illness confined him to the very hospital used as a background for the "Interne". He fought hard. He never gave up. His friends fought with him. But there is always a curtain, a final curtain, in a play. His life's drama was short; but the quality of it was exquisite.

There was one word with which Wallace Thurman used to describe a situation or a book or a play or a joke or anything which he thought superior and outstanding -- "Priceless".

His life, his work, his success characterize that word -- the word and his name are synonymous. Wallace Thurman was Priceless.

WALLACE THURMAN

Wallace Thurman was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 16, 1902. He was educated at the University of Southern California. He enrolled in the pre-medical course but later, discovering that his interest was writing, lost sight of degrees and studied the subjects that seemed to promise some use in that field. On the Pacific coast he edited one or two little magazines. During the summer of 1925 he arrived in New York and worked for awhile as an elevator runner. Later he took an examination for the Customs House and passed, but did not report when he was called. By that time he had "discovered" Harlem. He served on the editorial staffs of The Messenger, The World Tomorrow and the Macaulay Publishing Company. In 1929 his first novel, "The Blacker the Berry", was published. His play, HARLEM, written in collaboration with William Jourdan Rapp, opened at the Apollo Theatre on 42nd Street on February 20, 1929. This play was based on his short story, "Cordelia the Crude", which appeared in Fire. He edited the magazines, Fire, a magazine devoted to the Younger Negro Artists (Nov. 1926), and Harlem, a Forum of Negro Life (Nov. 1928). His second novel, "Infants of the Spring", was published in 1932. In collaboration with A. L. Furman he wrote "The Interne" which was also published in 1932. In February 1934 he left for Hollywood where he wrote the scripts for "High School Girl" and a film on sterilization. In May of that year he returned to New York where he died on Welfare Island on December 22, 1934.

This brief biography was written for this box of Wallace Thurman manuscript by Harold Jackman.