Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist, commonly associated with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the latter association. His reputation primarily stems from his groundbreaking novel Cane (1923), which he wrote during and after his time as a school principal at a black school in rural Sparta, Georgia. The novel intertwines the stories of six women and includes an apparently autobiographical thread. Sociologist Charles S. Johnson praised it as "the most astonishingly brilliant beginning of any Negro writer of his generation."

Despite his contributions, Toomer resisted being classified as a "Negro" writer and identified himself as "American." For over a decade, he was an influential follower and representative of the pioneering spiritual teacher G.I. Gurdjieff. Later in life, he embraced Quakerism.

Toomer continued to write poetry, short stories, and essays throughout his life. His personal life saw him marrying twice; his first wife died soon after the birth of their daughter. With his second marriage in 1934, he relocated from New York to Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and retired from public life. His papers are preserved at the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University.