Originally published in 1923, Cane is Jean Toomer's literary masterpiece and an illumination of the psychological and moral concerns of the 1920s. An innovative, impressionistic blend of prose and poetry, it portrays the African American experience in the early twentieth century, which saw the end of the agriculture system, black Southern folk culture, and the migration of thousands from the rural South to the industrialized urban North. Against these backdrops, men and women struggle with emotions, desires, social strictures, bigotry, inadequacy, and inaction. A rich, heady montage -- inspired partly by Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio -- Cane also has echoes of the Imagists, of Expressionism, and of jazz and drama.