Emma Hamilton Dancing

Owen Vincent Dodson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 28, 1914. He attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, receiving a bachelor's in 1936, and Yale School of Drama, graduating with an MFA in playwriting in 1939 with his play Divine Comedy. Following graduation he enlisted in the Navy, writing plays and poems about the Black naval experience. The 1940s also brought Dodson several critical successes, with the performance of his play New World A-Coming (1944) and the publication of his poetry collection Powerful Long Ladder (1946). Other publications of note from throughout his career include several novels, including Boy at the Window (1951) and Come Home Early, Child (1977); plays, including Garden of Time and Bayou Legend; and short stories, including “The Summer Five,” which won an award from the Paris Review.

Dodson taught at Howard University from 1947-69, and while there taught such notable students as Amiri Baraka, Ossie Davis, Earle Hyman, and Charles Brown. He also brought several well-known actors to the university as guests, including Vivien Leigh and Sidney Poitier. He briefly taught at several other colleges and universities, including Spelman College and Atlanta University in Georgia and Hampton Institute in Virginia. Dodson was also the recipient of the Rosenwald and Guggenheim Fellowships. Dodson died on June 21, 1983, in New York City.