The complete collection of Jessie R. Fauset. Illustrated: There Is Confusion, Plum Bun, The Chinaberry Tree and others

by Jessie Redmon Fauset

The Complete Collection of Jessie R. Fauset brings together the major works of one of the most influential yet often overlooked voices of the Harlem Renaissance. This beautifully illustrated edition features her most acclaimed novels, including There Is Confusion, Plum Bun, The Chinaberry Tree, and other important writings that explore the complexities of race, gender, and identity in early 20th-century America.

Fauset’s fiction is rich in psychological depth and social critique. In There Is Confusion, she challenges prevailing narratives about African American identity by focusing on a Black middle-class family's aspirations and personal struggles. It is a bold assertion of cultural pride and self-definition.

Plum Bun tells the compelling story of a light-skinned African American woman who attempts to pass as white in pursuit of personal freedom and artistic ambition. Fauset examines the cost of such choices with sensitivity and nuance, making it one of the period’s most enduring novels.

In The Chinaberry Tree, Fauset turns her attention to the legacies of family and social stigma, portraying women whose lives are shaped by secrets, judgment, and the pursuit of dignity.

Fauset’s writing is notable for its elegance, emotional insight, and moral complexity. She was also a pioneering editor and mentor who helped launch the careers of Langston Hughes and other major figures.

This collection is essential reading for anyone interested in African American literature, women’s voices, and the cultural rebirth of the Harlem Renaissance. The illustrations add historical depth and beauty to this tribute to a literary trailblazer.

-There Is Confusion
-Plum A Novel Without a Moral
-The Chinaberry A Novel of American Life
-Comedy, American Style

1261 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 6, 2025

About the author

Jessie Redmon Fauset was an American editor, poet, essayist and novelist.

Fauset was born in Fredericksville, an all-black hamlet in Camden County, New Jersey, also known as Free Haven (now incorporated into the borough of Lawnside, New Jersey). She was the daughter of Anna "Annie" Seamon and Redmon Fauset, a Presbyterian minister. Her mother died when she was still a young girl. Her father remarried Bella Huff (a white woman), and they had three children, including civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset (1899–1983).

Fauset attended Philadelphia High School for girls, and graduated as the only African American in her class. After high school Fauset graduated from Cornell University in 1905, and is believed to be the second black woman elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She later received her M.A. in French from the University of Pennsylvania. Fauset came to the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, in 1912. From 1919 to 1926 she served as the literary editor of The Crisis under W. E. B. Du Bois. Eventually 58 of her 77 published works first appeared in the journal's pages. She is the author of four novels, There Is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1928), The Chinaberry Tree: A Novel of American Life (1931), and Comedy, American Style (1933). She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.

Fauset worked as a schoolteacher for many years and retired from teaching in 1944. She died in 1961 from heart failure.