For me, Victoria Christopher Murray’s Harlem Rhapsody is the quintessential historical novel. It is based on true events, is entertaining and provided a learning opportunity. I enjoyed reading this book that centered on Jessie Redmon Fauset, the literary editor of The Crisis - the magazine created and edited by Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois, a civil rights activist. The struggle of Fauset to be seen as a talented writer, editor and activist in her own right was hampered by her on and off again affair with De Bois. The events unfold during the early nineteenth century and Christopher Murray emphasis the struggle for racial equality, yet interweaves women’s fight for equality. I learned much about the early fight for African-American equality, the activists involved, and the early development of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). I highly recommend this book.

This is historical fiction at its best Victoria Christopher Murray brings the Harlem Renaissance alive.I enjoyed learning about the people their personal lives their times.#netgalley #berkley

Victoria has done it again. She has the ani,it’s to transport you directly to the time period for which she writes. The characters are brought to life in such richness that it feels like the truth. It wasn’t her intention, but she made me fall in love with poetry again. It made me research old Brownie publications and I felt as proud as readers did in the 20s. Murray is a writer that I will purchase sight unseen. If you love historical fiction, quality writing with a flare of scandal this is your book.

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the life of Jessie Redmon Fauset. I was not aware of her or her amazing impact on the Harlem Renaissance. Her wisdom and groundbreaking work led to so many great works of literature including her own. It was also eye opening to get a different perspective of W.E.B. DuBois. Their professional and personal relationship made them both strong advocates for the black community and literary works. Thank you to Victoria Christopher Murray for her beautiful prose.

Victoria Christopher Murray has done it again. She has found yet another remarkable, but probably unknown to most, woman and celebrated her life in this well written piece of historical fiction. In this book, Harlem Rhapsody, the focus is on a woman who should be recognized by all, Jessie Redmon Fauset. Fauset introduced the world to such luminaries as Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Nella Larsen; and those are only a few of the more famous names that she discovered and published.

Jessie Redmon Fauset was a women ahead of her time. Highly educated - a graduate of Cornell and the Sorbonne (and the first Black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa) - Fauset was working as a school teacher in Washington, DC. However, in 1919 she moved to New York City to become the literary editor of The Crisis, the magazine published by the then 10 year old NAACP. She was named as literary editor by the founder and editor-in-chief, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. Fauset was determined to be a novelist, editor and publisher; in short, a career woman, and unlike most women of her time, had no interest in being married and giving up her career. However, she was not above taking a lover - no other than the married Dr. Du Bois. Their relationship provides a tension to the book that keeps the reader on edge leaving you with questions like: will their relationship be discovered by his wife; will Du Bois fire Fauset from her position if she ends the affair; and, what will happen if someone on the NAACP board discovers them?

That tension remains in the background, while the reader is exposed to how Fauset finds, influences, and shapes the lives and works of her luminary stars. She also finds time to write a novel which is met with acclaim. She is truly is a remarkable woman and one that I hope the world will celebrate when Harlem Rhapsody hits the shelves and gets the readership it deserves.

Murray breathes vivid life into historical figures and excavates the compelling personal dramas of some of the most influential figures of the time. This origin story of the Harlem Renaissance will make you laugh, cry, and feel incredibly grateful for Jessie's mentorship and contributions to literature.

I was excited to read this new offering by Victoria Christopher Murphy about the Harlem , Renaissance in the 1910s. While I learned much about the rising literary stars of the period, I was sorely disappointed by the storytelling. Jessie Fauset , accompanied by her stepmother as her chaperone, had just arrived in Harlem to begin a position as editor of The Crisis magazine. W.E.B. DuBois, Civil Rights activist and co-founder of the NAACP, created the magazine as well as the position for Jessie as the literary editor. She was The book slogs through endless pages of constant and tedious praise of DuBois. Jessie was a talented young person but also aided by her secret affair with the married DuBois. As the story developed, it became clear that Jessie was a woman of unbridled ambition that superseded any morality, love or respect for others. I was left wondering if Murphy really intended her as a role model for young Black women when, to me she was not a role model for women of any color.

To me, the sign of a good historical fiction novel is when I can't wait to Google and learn more about the characters and this one fits the bill. I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of poetry so I had never heard of Jessie Redmon Fauset (or some of the poets she "births" throughout the story, but I'm so glad I now know her story and the impact she had on the Harlem Renaissance. What a truly spectacular and important woman of history.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy this and it would make for a great book club discussion as well! There's so much to unpack.

The book was a disappointing read. Written in somewhat simplistic style, similar to a romance novel, I was expecting to learn more about W.E,B. DuBois' role in the history of civil rights for people of color. Instead he is portrayed as an egotistical philanderer taking deep advantage of Jessie both as a professional and a human. Also disappointing is Jessie's lack of self-worth continuing a long-time affair with a married man. She is portrayed as intelligent and ambitious, yet displays a weakness of character continuing an adulterous affair

Hands down, this is one of the best books I have reviewed in the many years! Not only is the story, plot line, and characters mesmerizing, but the historical education of the Harlem Renaissance was spellbounding. There is so much we don't know until reading such a well-documented novel as this. I am motivated to read more and cannot wait until Victoria Christopher Murray's next book! P.S. I am thrilled she collaborates with one of my favorite historical fiction authors - Marie Benedict.

Harlem Rhapsody is the fictionalized account of Jessie Redmond Fauset's importance in the discovery and publishing of so many Black writers in the early 1920's in Harlem, NY. I had never heard of this exceptional woman but I have read many of the writers, poets and playwrights that she encouraged early in their careers. In her role as literary editor for the Black magazine "The Crisis", owned and run by Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, Jessie became involved not only as an employee in the daily running of the business but also as a lover to him. Finding the courage to break free from her feelings for "Will" and having the strength to finally believe in herself and her own writing talents, leads Jessie to finally publish her own works which received outstanding praise.
A fascinating woman, highly educated, talented and well-traveled but limited by her sex and the color of her skin. The story is totally believable and pulls the reader into that time period in Harlem. Author's "Historical Note" at the conclusion of the book shed's more light on this remarkable woman seemingly forgotten today and without whom we would not have the successful Black writers of today.

I received a pre publication copy of Victoria Christopher"s latest novel Harlem Rhapsody. It tells the story of Jessie Redmon Fauset, the literary editor of The NAACP's magazine, The Crisis, from 1919-1925. While Harlem Rhapsody is historical fiction, Miss Fauset's accomplishments are not. In an era where women, especially black women, had limited rights and limited access to education, she was a Cornell graduate, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an accomplished writer and a poet. She nurtured major poets and writers including Countee Cullen, Nella Larson, Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes, who called her the midwife of the Harlem Renaissance. She also rubbed shoulders with Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Marcus Garvey, and Charles MacKay. It was enlightening to learn about her world.

This novel is also a love story of sorts. She was appointed the literary editor of The Crisis by W.E.B. Dubois, the civil rights icon, her mentor and her lover, He was a monumental historical figure and very impactful on Miss Fauset's trajectory. However, I would have preferred more history and less relationship. The love story detracts from this woman, seemingly lost to history, and overshadows her individual achievements.

It was interesting to learn that Ms. Murray had only recently learned about Miss Fauset. I am glad that she decided to discover the renaissance life of Jessie Redmon Fauset and share it with us. I recommend this novel to those interested in history, women's history, the Harlem Renaissance, United States history, and black history. For me, it was a welcome education.

This was an enjoyable read. Jessie Redmon Fauset is not somebody I had been familiar with before this and am glad to have learned about her. The Harlem Renaissance was an important time in our history bringing us several prolific writers, artists, musicians and performers. It is always heartening to read about strong women, especially women of color, and this story brought to life the emotions, struggles and family life of Ms. Fauset in a way that takes makes you feel as if you are there with her. It touches on the suffragette movement, the NAACP, black culture and much more. Overall, an enjoyable read with much historical research.

Thank you to Book Browse, Berkley and NetGalley for an advance readers copy of this book.

This inspiring, evocative novel joins several others by the same author about important but forgotten Black women in the first half of 20th century America.
Born in 1882, Jessie Redmon Fauset was a Black feminist who, in 1919, became the first literary editor of “The Crisis,” the premier Negro* periodical of its time. With impeccable academic credentials (BA from Cornell, Phi Beta Kappa; MA from University of Pennsylvania), Fauset was dedicated to changing the racist world. In her role at “The Crisis,” she discovered and nurtured young Negro poets and writers, and eventually became a celebrated novelist herself.

Fauset also was devoted to WEB Du Bois, the founder and editor of “The Crisis,” with whom she apparently had a long-time affair. This affair provides the framework for the book, as she comes to Harlem because WEB made her literary editor, and she constantly has to choose between work and love, and the knowledge that her great love is morally objectionable to her family, and must be hidden from her friends.
With vivid character portrayals, the author introduces a panoply of writers and thinkers from the Harlem Renaissance, populating the book with others whose stories invite further reading.

The book also raises a philosophical question: in the Author’s Note Murray says that there is clear evidence of this affair between Fauset and Du Bois. However, it was hidden, if rumored, and I am not sure why the author chose to build the story of a remarkable woman, of any time or race, around something that she was so secretive and, presumably, uncomfortable about being known.

It does make for engrossing reading, but as with other novels based so heavily on a real person’s life, it raises questions about the choices to fictionalize private, protected areas of that life – and will add to the many ways this novel makes for good book group discussions.
*This was the term favored at that time by the Black community.

I really enjoyed this book. I did not know this part of history, the publishing world, the struggle to be black along with being a woman. This is based on the life Jesse Redmon Fauset. She becomes the literary editor of the black magazine The Crisis. Jesse is determined to make the magazine the best there is by finding young black talent and soon every black writer in America wants to be published in her magazine. She is having an affair with her editor, the founder of the magazine. She doesn't want marriage or children. My only criticism was the author used so many words I had to look up as I was not familiar with them. It disrupted the flow of the story.