Richard Bruce Nugent was a singular figure during the Harlem Renaissance but his importance was due as much to his unique personal style, sense of humor, and world view as to his modest literary output. He was the ultimate bohemian, thumbing his nose at social, political, and sexual conventions. He knew, and worked with, many of Harlem's artistic luminaries, and his participation in the period's arts and letters added a bold and individual voice to the era's search for Afro-American identity.

Nugent was born to a family of modest means but high social position in Washington, D.C., black society. His parents, Richard Henry Nugent and Pauline Minerva Bruce, were artistically inclined and made sure the arts figured prominently in their sons' education. Gary Lambert Nugent, Richard's younger brother, eventually developed a distinguished career as a jazz dancer. The future writer attended Dunbar High School, but when Richard...