Henry Dumas

Henry Dumas (July 20, 1934 – May 23, 1968) was an American writer and poet. He has been called "an absolute genius" by Toni Morrison, who as a commissioning editor at Random House published posthumous collections both of his poetry, Play Ebony, Play Ivory, and his short stories, Ark of Bones, in 1974. Biography Dumas was born in Sweet Home, Arkansas, in 1934 and lived there until the age of ten, when he moved to New York City; however, he always kept with him the religious and folk traditions of his hometown. In Harlem, he attended public school and graduated from Commerce High School in 1953. After graduating, he attended City College of New York, before joining the Air Force. But prior to beginning his military journey, he met a woman named Loretta Ponton in New York. The two would keep in touch, marrying in 1955 and moving to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Dumas also spent eighteen months on the Arabian Peninsula, where he developed an interest in Arab culture. He was in the military until 1957, at which time he enrolled at Rutgers University, where he attended as a full-time and a part-time student without attaining a degree. Dumas and Ponton had two sons: David, born in 1958, and Michael, born in 1962. In 1967, Dumas became a teacher-counselor and director of language workshops at Southern Illinois University's Experiment in Higher Education, in East St. Louis. He worked there under the direction of Dr. Edward W. Crosby, who was also an editor of the Hiram Poetry Review at the time. Some of Dumas's early work was published in the Hiram Review, which is likely how the two became acquainted. Dumas also became an editor of the Hiram Review from 1967 until his death in 1968. After Dumas's untimely death Dr. Crosby returned to the editorial staff of the Hiram Review and urged Eugene Redmond, one of Dumas's fellow teachers and poet, to talk to Loretta Dumas about publishing his works posthumously. The die was cast, arrangements were made and with the editorial assistance of Hale Chatfield, founder of the Hiram Poetry Review, Dumas's works were published by Southern Illinois University Press.