Arna Bontemps was a noted writer. Good friends with Langston Hughes, a sometimes collaborator, Bontemps was nearly as prolific. He published novels, plays, poetry, various genres of non-fiction and children's books. He collaborated with Countee Cullen and W. C. Handy in addition to Hughes.
While an important writer, Bontemps best work may have been as a librarian. Bontemps spent over twenty years as the librarian at Fisk University, the traditionally black college which holds W.E.B. DuBois, Nikki Giovanni and others among its alumni. While librarian, Bontemps made it a top priority to focus on collecting words about African-American culture and works by African-American authors. What he did, advertantly or inadvertantly, was creat the canon for what would become African-American studies, and especially African-American Literature as a field. His library brought respect to a burgeoning field and pointed the way for further study.
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