He is most famous for *Cane* (1923), a unique blend of prose sketches, poetry, and drama. It's commonly taught as a significant piece of American modernism and a key work of the Harlem Renaissance.
Toomer identified as American instead of as a Black or Negro writer. His racial background was mixed and ambiguous, and he believed that being categorized within a racial literary movement limited his work to something narrower than he intended. He wanted *Cane* to be regarded as American literature, end of story.
*Cane* is divided into three sections. The first part takes place in rural Georgia and highlights the experiences of Black women in the South. The second part moves to the urban North. The final section returns to the South, bringing a more dramatic, theatrical tone. Throughout the work, it grapples with themes of identity, desire, beauty, and the physical and emotional violence that American racism imposes on people's lives.
It’s truly both and neither. Publishers have labeled it a novel, yet it features standalone poems, prose vignettes, and a play. The form itself is significant — Toomer was crafting something that didn’t conform to existing categories, which is why it still feels so fresh.
He kept writing but changed his focus significantly. He became a dedicated student of the spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff, spending years leading workshops and crafting philosophical and spiritual works. Most of his later manuscripts were rejected by publishers, and he never regained the audience that *Cane* had brought him.
Toomer came across G.I. Gurdjieff's ideas in the early 1920s and became a prominent American advocate for them. For more than ten years, he organized Gurdjieff study groups in Harlem and other locations. The spiritual framework that Gurdjieff presented—centered on self-development and moving beyond ordinary awareness—clearly resonated with Toomer, who had always pushed against rigid identity categories.
*Cane* has secured its place in the American literary canon and is now taught alongside Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and other modernists from the same period. Toomer, however, remains a somewhat enigmatic figure — praised for just one book, yet his own reluctance toward the communities that honored him adds complexity to his legacy.
