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:
““Seven years and six months!” Humpty Dumpty repeated thoughtfully. “An uncomfortable sort of age. Now if you’d asked my advice, I’d have said ‘Leave off at seven’Mbut it’s too late now.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“When people ask me how I develop recipes, I have to respond: “travelling, eating, watching, experimenting, and constantly asking myself: ‘Do I want to eat this dish again?’” Will I yearn for it some evening when I’m hungry? Will I remember it in six months’ time? In a year? Five years from now?”
—Paula Wolfert, U.S. cookbook writer. Paula Wolfert’s World of Food, Introduction, Harper and Row (1988)