Pauline Hopkins Popular Books

Pauline Hopkins Biography & Facts

Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins (1856 – August 13, 1930) was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, historian, and editor. She is considered a pioneer in her use of the romantic novel to explore social and racial themes, as demonstrated in her first major novel Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South. In addition, Hopkins is known for her significant contributions as editor for the Colored American Magazine, which was recognized as being among the first periodicals specifically celebrating African-American culture through short stories, essays and serial novels. She is also known to have had connections to other influential African Americans of the time, such as Booker T. Washington and William Wells Brown. Hopkins spent most of her life in Boston, Massachusetts, where she completed the majority of her works. As an active contributor to the racial, political and feminist discourse of the time, Hopkins is known as being one of the significant intellectuals of the early 20th century to promote racial uplift through her writing. Early life Hopkins was born to Benjamin Northrup and Sarah A. Allen in Portland, Maine in 1856, and grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. Allegations of infidelity led Allen to file for divorce, and shortly afterwards she met and married William Hopkins. It was not until age 20 that Pauline Allen took on the name of her stepfather and became Pauline Hopkins. Northrup had been influential in Providence, Rhode Island, due to his political ties and Hopkins' mother was a native of Exeter, New Hampshire. Her maternal ancestry traces back to the famous New Hampshire natives Nathaniel and Thomas Paul, who were of religious prominence for their Baptist ministry and the latter for opening the first Black Baptist church in the Boston area. The high-achieving Hopkins household encouraged Pauline academically, which led her to develop an appreciation for literature. In addition to hailing from a well-educated household, she was inspired from an early age by African-American leaders of the time, such as Frederick Douglass, whom she later cited as having "god-like gifts" in her recollection of attending one of his talks during adolescence. In 1874, after completing her second year at Girls High School, she entered an essay contest held by the Congregational Publishing Society of Boston and funded by former slave, novelist, and dramatist William Wells Brown. Her submission, "Evils of Intemperance and Their Remedy", highlighted the problems with intemperance and urged parents to be in control of their children's social upbringing. She placed first in the contest and won $10 in gold. Hopkins became well known for her various roles as a dramatist, actress and singer. In March 1877, she participated in her first dramatic performance, Pauline Western, the Belle of Saratoga. After this, she acted in several other plays and received positive reviews. However, it was not until the beginning of the 1900s that she decided to focus more on her literary passions. Literary career Plays, novels and short stories Hopkins' earliest known work, a musical play called Slaves’ Escape; or, The Underground Railroad (later revised as Peculiar Sam; or, The Underground Railroad), was first performed at Oakland Garden in Boston during the year 1880. Afterwards, she wrote another unpublished play titled One Scene from the Drama of Early Days, which was dramatized rendition of the biblical story of Daniel in the lions' den. Her short story "Talma Gordon," published in 1900, is often noted as being the first African-American mystery story. She explored the difficulties faced by African Americans amid the racist violence of post-Civil War America in her first novel, Contending Forces: A Romance Illustrative of Negro Life North and South, published in 1900. In the following years, she published three serial novels between 1901 and 1903 in the African-American periodical Colored American Magazine: Hagar's Daughter: A Story of Southern Caste Prejudice, Winona: A Tale of Negro Life in the South and Southwest, and Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self. Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self The last of Hopkins' four novels, Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self, first appeared in serial form in The Colored American Magazine from November 1902 to November 1903, during the four-year period in which Hopkins served as its editor. Elements of the work have been compared to Goethe's Faust. Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self tells the story of Reuel Briggs, a medical student who does not care about being black or appreciating African history, but finds himself in Ethiopia on an archaeological trip. His motive is to raid the country of lost treasures, which he does find. However, he discovers much more than he expected: the painful truth about blood, race, and the half of his history that was never told. Hopkins wrote the novel intending, in her own words, to "raise the stigma of degradation from [the Black] race". The title, Of One Blood, refers to the biological kinship of all human beings. Although Of One Blood: Or, The Hidden Self is a work of fiction, Hopkins constructs an historical argument in her novel, using historical and literary sources, as well as travelogues. Her argument, which ran counter to many histories of that time, was that the ancient cultures of the Nile Valley were African in origin, not imported to the area from elsewhere. Colored American Magazine From the beginning of the nine-year run of the Colored American Magazine, Hopkins served as a major contributor to the periodical's success. Hopkins short story "The Mystery Within Us" was included in the first issue of Colored American Magazine, a monthly periodical started by the same company who published Hopkins' novel Contending Forces in the same year. She was named Editor of the Women's Department by the second issue, and Literary Editor of the magazine by November 1903. In addition, she would go on to write sketches for the periodical known as "Famous Women of the Negro Race" and "Famous Men of the Negro Race." This series gave recognition to many of the influential Black figures of the time through detailing their lives and legacies, including abolitionist William Wells Brown, the same inspiration who had awarded her for her essay-writing ability as a teenager nearly three decades earlier. At times going by the pseudonym Sarah A. Allen, Hopkins through her work at the Colored American began to gain recognition in the public eye. As a result of this, she was offered the opportunity to become a member of the board of directors, a shareholder and a creditor of the magazine. Along with her writing, she helped to increase subscriptions and raise funding for the magazine as a co-founder of "The American Colored League", which was an organization started in 1904 with the mission of promoting the interests of the Colored American. These roles alone helped her break into the literary world, with her work mak.... Discover the Pauline Hopkins popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Pauline Hopkins books.