"Essentials is the perfect book of meditations; a timeless collection of aphorisms and a seminal work of the Harlem Renaissance. This book explores many of the same themes that emerge in Cane: man's modern search for wholeness, connection, and resolution in an age of fragmentation, alienation, and exploitation. In a unique blending of Eastern religious belief and modern psychology - inspired by his extended study with G. I. Gurdjieff - Toomer reflects on topics ranging from the dangers of industrial society to the failure of modern religious and educational institutions. "--BOOK JACKET.