"Arnaud "Arna"Wendell Bontemps"(October 13,1902-June 4,1973)

Was an American poet and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance.Arnaud was born in the city of  Alexandria,Louisiana on October 13, 1902 to the son of Charlie Bontemps and Marie Pembrooke Bontemps.His birthplace at 1327 Third Street has been recently restored and converted for use as the Bontemps African American Museum.It is included on the Louisiana African American Trail.When he was three,his family moved to the Watts district of Los Angeles,California in the Great Migration of blacks out of  the south to cities of the North,Midwest and west.He graduated from Pacific Union College in California in 1923.After graduating he went to New York to teach at Harlem Academy.In New York he became an important contributor the Harlem Renaissance where he met many lifelong friends including Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes became a role model collaborator and dear friend.Arnaud began writing while a student at Pacific Union College where he majored in English and minored in history,and later became the author of many children's books.His critically most important work.The Story of the Negro (1948),received the Jane Addams Book Award and was also a Newbery Honor Book.He is probably best known for the 1931 novel God Sends Sunday,the 1936 novel Black Thunder,and the 1966 anthology Great Slave Narratives. Arnaud also wrote the 1946 play St.Louis Woman with Countee Cullen.In 1943,after graduating from the University of  Chicago with a master degree in library science,Arnaud was appointed head librarian at Fisk University in Nashville,TN.He held that position for 22 years and developed important collections and archives of African-American literature and culture,namely the Langston Hughes Renaissance Collection.After retiring from Fisk University in 1966,he worked at the University of Illinois (Chicago Circle) and Yale University,where he served as curator to the James Weldon Johnson Collection.Through his librarianship and bibliographic work,Arnaud has become a leading figure in establishing African-American literature as a legitimate object of study and preservation.He died in Nashville from a heart attack while working on his autobiography.