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Marian Minus

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Marian Minus
Born
Mattie Marian Minus

September 4, 1914
South Carolina, U.S.
DiedOctober 1972
OccupationWriter
PartnerDorothy West

Mattie Marian Minus (September 4, 1914 – October 1972)[1] was an American writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance, especially with writers Dorothy West and Richard Wright.

Early life and education

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Minus was born in South Carolina and raised in Dayton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura Whitener Minus and Claude Wellington Minus.[2] Her mother was a seamstress who worked for the WPA; her father was a pharmacist and taught at Wilberforce University. Her maternal grandmother, Laura Lyles, was white, and the model for a character in Dorothy West's 1995 novel The Wedding.[3] Minus won an award for perfect grades in 1932,[4] and graduated at the top of her class at Fisk University in 1935,[5][6] and began graduate studies in anthropology, on a Rosenwald Fund fellowship,[3][7] at the University of Chicago.[2]

At Fisk, Minus was the first woman elected to Sigma Upsilon Pi honor society,[6] and the president of the Alpha Beta chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[8]

Career

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In Chicago in the 1930s, Minus became a member of the South Side Writers Group with Richard Wright.[2][9] With Wright and her partner, Dorothy West, she was co-editor of Challenge, a literary magazine,[10] and of its more political successor, New Challenge.[11][12] "The only prejudice editors Dorothy West, Marian Minus, and Richard Wright own to is a distinct anti-fascist prejudice and they mix no words in saying so," noted one reviewer in 1937.[13]

Minus wrote short stories,[14] typed manuscripts for West,[15] and worked for Consumers Union.[7][16] In 1942, she gave an anthropology lecture at the School for Democracy in New York City.[17] She won an award from Simon & Schuster to write a novel, Time is my Enemy, in 1946.[18] In 1958, she became personnel director for Consumers Union, based in Mount Vernon, New York.[3][19]

Publications

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  • "The Negro as a Consumer" (1937, Opportunity, article)[16]
  • "The Fine Line" (1939, short story)[20]
  • "Girl, Colored" (1940, The Crisis, short story)[21]
  • "Half-Bright" (1940, Opportunity, short story)[22]
  • "The Threat to Mr. David" (1947, short story, Woman's Day)[23]

Personal life and legacy

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Minus had a longtime personal and professional partnership with writer Dorothy West; they lived together in New York City at the time of the 1940 census, and on Martha's Vineyard.[24][25] In the 1950 census, she was recorded living with her mother in New York City.[26] Later in life she lived with Edna Pemberton.[3] Minus died in 1972, in her fifties.[2]

Her story "Girl, Colored" has been anthologized several times. It was included in Black Women's Blues (1992),[27] Ebony Rising (2004), in an anthology of Harlem Renaissance short fiction,[28] and in a 2011 anthology of stories by Black women in The Crisis.[29]

References

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  1. ^ Birth and death dates as given in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007, via Ancestry; many sources give a 1913 birth year and a 1973 death year instead.
  2. ^ a b c d Williams, Donyel Hobbs (2011). "'Mattie' Marian Minus (1913–1973)". In Tracy, Steven C. (ed.). Writers of the Black Chicago Renaissance. University of Illinois Press. doi:10.5406/j.ctt1xcfxx.22. ISBN 978-0-252-03639-2.
  3. ^ a b c d Mitchell, Verner D.; Davis, Cynthia (2011). Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle, A Biography of the Harlem Renaissance. Rutgers University Press. pp. 148–155. ISBN 978-0-8135-5213-2.
  4. ^ "Fisk Holds 58th Annual Graduation". The Call. 1932-06-17. p. 11. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "The American Negro in College, 1934–35". The Crisis. 42 (8): 234. August 1935.
  6. ^ a b "Sigma Upsilon Pi Chapter Set Up at Fisk University". The Call. 1934-06-29. p. 19. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b Wald, Alan M. (2012). Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth-Century Literary Left. UNC Press Books. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-4696-0867-9.
  8. ^ "Deltas Strike High Average at Fisk 'U'". New Pittsburgh Courier. 1936-04-18. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ Jackson, Lawrence P. (2021). The Indignant Generation: A Narrative History of African American Writers and Critics, 1934–1960. Princeton University Press. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-1-4008-3623-9.
  10. ^ Daniel, Walter C. (1976). "'Challenge Magazine': An Experiment That Failed". CLA Journal. 19 (4): 494–503. ISSN 0007-8549. JSTOR 44329295.
  11. ^ Dugan, James (1937-10-25). "New Negro Quarterly". The Daily Worker. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  12. ^ Rowley, Hazel (2008). Richard Wright: The Life and Times. University of Chicago Press. pp. 134–137. ISBN 978-0-226-73038-7.
  13. ^ Seaver, Edwin (1937-11-10). "Books of the Day". The Daily Worker. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Graham, Gladys P. (1949-11-11). "Marion Minus, Important Cog in Consumers Union". The Call. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene (2012). Dorothy West's Paradise: A Biography of Class and Color. Rutgers University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-8135-5224-8.
  16. ^ a b Minus, Marian (September 1938). "The Negro as a Consumer". Opportunity. 16 (9): 274–276.
  17. ^ "Plan New Negro Courses in School for Democracy". Atlanta Daily World. 1942-05-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Simon, Schuster to Publish Works of New Authors". The Columbia Record. 1946-03-28. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-06-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ "Black Women in Business; 'White Collar' Job Openings Rise". The Standard-Star. 1969-02-11. p. 49. Retrieved 2025-06-03 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ Brummer, Jamie (2015-01-02). "Exile and Initiation: Images of the Garden in Marian Minus's The Fine Line". The Explicator. 73 (1): 5–8. doi:10.1080/00144940.2014.1000245. ISSN 0014-4940.
  21. ^ Minus, Marian (September 1940). "Girl, Colored". The Crisis. 47 (9): 284, 297.
  22. ^ Minus, Marian (September 1940). "Half-Bright". Opportunity. 18 (9): 257 – via Internet Archive.
  23. ^ Minus, Miriam (June 1947). "The Threat to Mr. David". Woman's Day: 41, 70 – via Internet Archive.
  24. ^ Kushwaha, Brooke (May 25, 2023). "Harlem Renaissance Hero and Oak Bluffs Regular Gets Her Due". The Vineyard Gazette – Martha's Vineyard News. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  25. ^ Garman, Emma (2018-07-11). "Feminize Your Canon: Dorothy West by Emma Garman". The Paris Review. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  26. ^ 1950 United States census, via Ancestry.
  27. ^ Black women's blues : a literary anthology, 1934–1988. Internet Archive. New York: G.K. Hall; Toronto: Maxwell Macmillan Canada; New York: Maxwell Macmillan International. 1992. ISBN 978-0-8161-9084-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  28. ^ Gable, Craig (2004). Ebony rising : short fiction of the greater Harlem Renaissance era. Internet Archive. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34398-7.
  29. ^ "Girl, colored" and other stories : a complete short fiction anthology of African American women writers in The crisis magazine, 1910–2010. Internet Archive. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. 2011. ISBN 978-0-7864-4606-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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