Blanche Taylor Dickinson

This article is about the American writer born in 1896; for the American murderer of a similar name, born in 1933, see Blanche Taylor Moore.

Blanche Taylor Dickinson
Blanche Taylor Dickinson, from a 1927 publication
Born	April 15, 1896 near Franklin, Kentucky
Died	January 7, 1972 (1972-01-08) (aged 75) Hopkinsville, Kentucky
Other names	Patty Blanche Taylor, Blanch T. Dickinson
Occupation(s)	Writer, poet, journalist

Blanche Taylor Dickinson (April 15, 1896 – January 7, 1972) was an American writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance arts movement.[1][2] In 2023, she was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.[3]

Early life and education

Blanche Taylor was born on a farm near Franklin, Kentucky, the daughter of Thomas Taylor and Laura Taylor.[4] She attended Bowling Green Academy and Simmons College of Kentucky.[5][6]

Career

Taylor taught school as a young woman, and began a writing career,[7] with works published in national periodicals such as The Crisis and Opportunity, and major Black newspapers including The Chicago Defender and Pittsburgh Courier. Editor Countee Cullen included her poetry in Caroling Dusk (1927).[8][9] Charles S. Johnson also selected work by Taylor for his edited collection, Ebony and Topaz (1927).[10] "I do write a salable story once in a while," she said in an interview with Opportunity magazine at the time, "and an acceptable poem a little oftener."[3] Her journalism included newspaper columns "Smoky City's Streets"[11] and "Valley Echoes" for the Pittsburgh Courier,[12] and an interview about race and ability with Amelia Earhart for the Baltimore Afro-American in 1929.[3]

Publications

Poetry

• "The Rising Tide" (1925)[13]
• "The Farm Routine" (1925)[14]
• "Existence" (1926)[15]
• "That Hill" (1927)[16][17]
• "Fragile Things" (1927)[18]
• "A Sonnet and a Rondeau" (1927)
• "The Walls of Jericho" (1927)[8][9][19]
• "The Four Great Walls" (1927)[8][9]
• "Revelation" (1927)[9]
• "To an Icicle" (1927)[9]
• "Poem" (1927)[9]
• "Things Said When He Was Gone" (1927)[10]
• "A dark actress, somewhere"[1]
• "Renunciation" (1927)[20]
• "Mirrors" (1927)[20]
• "Fortitude" (1927)[2][21]
• "Garden of the Street" (1927)[22]
• "To One Who Thinks of Suicide" (1928)[23]
• "Fires" (1929)[24]
• "Good Wife" (1929)[25]

Fiction

• "Nellie Marie from Tennessee" (1927, serialized story)
• "Queenie" (1927)[26]
• "Tools of Youth" (short story)
• "Lured by a Brown Siren" (1928, short story)[6][27]
• "Nice Child" (1929, short story)[28]

Journalism

• "Take a Walk in Toledo!" (1929, Pittsburgh Courier)[29]
• "Suburban Realtor Dies" (1929, Pittsburgh Courier)[30]
• "Amelia Earhart Discusses the Negro" (1929, Baltimore Afro American)[31]

Personal life and legacy

Taylor married Verdell Dickinson, a truck driver. They lived in Sewickley, Pennsylvania in the 1920s;[32] they separated and she lived in Pittsburgh in the 1930s.[33] She moved back to Kentucky by 1937,[34] and resumed teaching in school.[35] In later years she used the name "Patty Blanche Taylor". She died in 1972, at the age of 75.[5][36] In recent years she has been included in anthologies of African American women's writing.[1] In 2021, she was one of the historical figures featured in the DAR's "cemetery walk" in Franklin.[37] In 2023, she was inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.[3][38]

References

1. Shadowed dreams : women's poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Maureen Honey. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. 1989. ISBN 0-8135-1419-3. OCLC 18959602.
2. Bracks, Lean'tin L.; Smith, Jessie Carney (2014-10-16). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 64–65. ISBN 978-0-8108-8543-1.
3. "Blanche Taylor Dickinson". The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
4. "Respected Colored Woman Dies". The Franklin Favorite. 1939-11-23. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
5. "About Blanche Taylor Dickinson". Academy of American Poets. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
6. Smith, Gerald L.; McDaniel, Karen Cotton; Hardin, John A. (2015-08-28). The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-8131-6066-5.
7. "Recognized in Literary World". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1927-01-08. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
8. Schipper, Jeremy; Junior, Nyasha (2020-06-01). Black Samson: The Untold Story of an American Icon. Oxford University Press. pp. 86–88. ISBN 978-0-19-068979-7.
9. Cullen, Countee (1927). Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets. Harper & brothers. ISBN 978-0-06-010926-4.
10. Johnson, Charles Spurgeon (1927). Ebony and Topaz: A Collectanea. Opportunity, National Urban League. p. 51.
11. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1928-08-25). "Smoky City's Streets". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 11. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
12. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1930-01-18). "Valley Echoes". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
13. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1925-07-16). "The Rising Tide". The Franklin Favorite. p. 3. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
14. Dickinson, Blanche T. (1925-07-02). "The Farm Routine". The Franklin Favorite. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
15. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1926-07-03). "Existence". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
16. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (January 1927). "That Hill". The Crisis. 33 (3): 140.
17. "The Horizon". The Crisis: 206. February 1927.
18. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1927-01-01). "Fragile Things". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
19. Goody, Alex (2019-10-29). Modernist Poetry, Gender and Leisure Technologies: Machine Amusements. Springer Nature. pp. 131–132. ISBN 978-1-349-95961-7.
20. Braithwaite, William Stanley (1928). Anthology of Magazine Verse. Schulte Publishing Company. p. 44.
21. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (February 1927). "Fortitude". Opportunity. 5: 37.
22. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (May 28, 1927). "Garden of the Street". Baltimore Afro American. p. 17. Retrieved February 12, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
23. Braithwaite, William Stanley (1928). Anthology of Magazine Verse. Schulte Publishing Company. p. 490.
24. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (June 1929). "Fires". Opportunity. 7 (6): 173.
25. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (May–June 1929). "Good Wife". Bozart and Contemporary Verse. 2 (5): 3.
26. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (June 25, 1927). "Queenie". Baltimore Afro American. p. 37. Retrieved February 12, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
27. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (December 1, 1928). "Lured by a Brown Siren". Baltimore Afro American. p. 2. Retrieved February 12, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
28. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1929-07-06). "Nice Child". The Pittsburgh Courier. pp. 13, 19. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
29. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (1929-07-06). "Take a Walk in Toledo!". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 9. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
30. Dickinson, Blanche T. (1929-03-09). "Suburban Realtor Dies". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
31. Dickinson, Blanche Taylor (February 23, 1929). "Amelia Earhart Discusses the Negro; Transatlantic Woman Flier Believes in Race's Ability". Baltimore Afro American. pp. 2, 5. Retrieved February 12, 2023 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
32. "Sewicklians Return". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1929-07-13. p. 7. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
33. "Sunday Nite Party". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1933-04-01. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
34. "Kentucky Burgoo, by the Burgoo-Master". The Courier-Journal. 1937-08-23. p. 2. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
35. "Dickinson, Blanch T." Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
36. "Funeral Services for Patty Taylor". The Franklin Favorite. 1972-01-13. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
37. "DAR holds annual cemetery walk". The Franklin Favorite. 2021-10-14. pp. A6. Retrieved 2023-02-12 – via Newspapers.com.
38. Lantern, Kentucky (2023-01-19). "Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame selects 5 new members". Hoptown Chronicle. Retrieved 2023-02-12.

External links

• Letter from Blanche Taylor Dickinson to Editor of the Crisis (November 22, 1924), W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, UMass Amherst
• Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Blanche Taylor Dickinson (November 29, 1924), W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, UMass Amherst
• A reading of Dickinson's "That Hill" by Kareem Badreddine, on YouTube