Through the eyes of an elderly Polish Jew, a comment on 20-century existence. A former journalist and survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, he lives in New York's upper west side, musing on the loss of tradition, roots, and ideals, and eyeing various family crises with curious but objective eyes.

"A tiny, fastidiously dressed man emerged from Black Philadelphia around the turn of the century to mentor a generation of young artists including Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jacob Lawrence and call them the New Negro--the creative African Americans whose art, literature, music, and drama would inspire Black people to greatness. In The New Negro : The Life of Alain Locke, Jeffrey C. Stewart offers the definitive biography of the father...