In the following essay excerpt, Chick examines how a short story by Bonner- "Nothing New"-anticipated The Purple Flower in theme and symbolism.

Bonner's education is firmly grounded in the classics. She attended Radcliffe, Harvard's sister college, from 1918 to 1922 and majored in English and Comparative Literature. Her upper-level English courses included the History of English Literature, the Lives and Characters of English and American Men of Letters, Anglo-Saxon, and Shakespeare.

Beginning in her last year of college, Bonner began teaching high school English and continued to do so until 1963. Thus, she would have had more than a passing familiarity with the poetry and would have likely regarded the lyrics as prime source material for her own original works. After college, she joined Georgia Douglas Johnson's writing group, "The Round Table" or the "S' Street Salon," where she met other members of the Talented Tenth, such as Langston...