Arna Bontemps - Later Years

Later Years

After retiring from Fisk University in 1966, Bontemps worked at the University of Illinois (Chicago Circle). He moved to Yale University, where he served as curator of the James Weldon Johnson Collection.

Through his librarianship and bibliographic work, Bontemps became a leading figure in establishing African-American literature as a legitimate object of study and preservation.

Bontemps died June 4, 1973, in Nashville, from a myocardial infarction (heart attack), while working on his autobiography.

Read more about this topic:  Arna Bontemps

Famous quotes containing the word years:

    Miss Knag still aimed at youth, although she had shot beyond it, years ago.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)

    To tell you the truth, I’m relieved that the Van Ripers are not coming. He’s telling the same jokes he told twenty years ago and she dyes her hair. I think it’s a shrimp pink now.
    Adele Comandini, and Edward Sutherland. Michael O’Brien (Charles Winninger)