Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance
Language: English
Published by Scribner Book Company, 2025
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: World of Books (was SecondSale), Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books (was SecondSale)
AbeBooks seller since December 20, 2007
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 3.46
Quantity: 5 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
FINALIST FOR THE ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARD "Raucously immersive.An intimate portrait of Black opulence in the early 20th century." --Oprah Daily A "scintillating, vibrant" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) and deeply researched biography of A'Lelia Walker--daughter of Madam C.J. Walker and herself a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance--written by her great-granddaughter. Dubbed the "joy goddess of Harlem's 1920s" by poet Langston Hughes, A'Lelia Walker was a dazzling cultural icon whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem cultural scene. After inheriting her mother's pioneering hair care business, A'Lelia became America's first high-profile Black heiress and a patron of the arts. Joy Goddess takes readers inside her New York homes, where she hosted luminaries including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, and W.E.B. Du Bois--figures who shaped African American history and culture during the Roaring Twenties. Drawing on extensive research and personal correspondence, A'Lelia Bundles presents a nuanced biography of a woman navigating life as a wife, mother, businesswoman, and patron outside the shadow of her famous mother's legacy. With vivid detail, Joy Goddess brings to life A'Lelia's radiant personality, fashion-forward influence, and role as one of the most important cultural icons of Harlem, offering a fresh and unforgettable portrait of the woman who embodied the spirit of a new Black cultural era.…
Seller Inventory # 00103878698
- Title
- Joy Goddess: A'Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance
- Author
- A'lelia Bundles
- Publisher
- Scribner Book Company
- Publication year
- 2025
- Condition
- Very Good
- Binding
- Hardback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1416544429
- ISBN 13
- 9781416544425
Dubbed the "joy goddess of Harlem's 1920s" by poet Langston Hughes, A'Lelia Walker, daughter of millionaire entrepreneur Madam C.J. Walker and the author's great-grandmother and namesake, is a fascinating figure whose legendary parties and Dark Tower salon helped define the Harlem Renaissance.
After inheriting her mother's hair care enterprise, A'Lelia would become America's first high profile black heiress and a prominent patron of the arts. Joy Goddess takes readers inside her three New York homes--a mansion, a townhouse, and a pied-a-terre--where she entertained Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Paul Robeson, Florence Mills, James Weldon Johnson, Carl Van Vechten, W.E.B. DuBois, and other cultural, social and intellectual luminaries of the Roaring Twenties.
Now, based on extensive research and Walker's personal correspondence, her great-granddaughter creates a meticulous, nuanced portrait of a charismatic woman struggling to define herself as a wife, mother, and businesswoman outside her famous mother's sphere. In Joy Goddess, A'Lelia's radiant personality and impresario instincts--at the center of a vast, artistic social world where she flourished as a fashion trendsetter and international traveler--are brought to vivid and unforgettable life.
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World of Books (was SecondSale)
Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since December 20, 2007
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