Editing Helene Johnson (section)

== Background ==
Helen (Helene) Johnson was born on July 7, 1906, to Ella Benson and George William Johnson in [[Boston]], Massachusetts.<ref name="Fillman-2017">{{Cite journal |last=Fillman |first=Robert |date=2017 |title=Toward an Understanding of Helene Johnson's Hybrid Modernist Poetics |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26559628 |journal=CLA Journal |volume=61 |issue=1–2 |pages=45–64 |doi=10.1353/caj.2017.0033 |jstor=26559628 |s2cid=258129731 |issn=0007-8549|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Her mother, Ella Benson, is categorized as a domestic worker. Her father, George William, left soon after her birth and there is minimal information about him. She was raised by her mother and her grandfather, Benjamin Benson. Her mother was the child of former slaves. When growing up, Johnson was raised in a town near Boston that was named Brookline.

Johnson was named after her maternal grandmother, Helen Pease Benson, who, along with her maternal grandfather, Benjamin Benson, was born into slavery in [[Camden, South Carolina]]. The pair produced three daughters together, Ella (Helene's mother), Minnie, and Rachel.

During her formative years, Johnson lived with her two aunts, Minnie and Rachel, who gave her the nickname Helene, even though her birth name was Helen. Johnson was raised with her cousin and future [[Harlem Renaissance]] novelist writer, [[Dorothy West]], in [[Brookline, Massachusetts]]. Dorothy West was also known for writing short stories. The two spent summers together in [[Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts]].

Helene received her high school education at the Boston Girls' Latin School, which was considered an exceptional public school for adolescents to attend at the time.

After high school, Johnson attended both [[Boston University]] and [[Columbia University]] but did not successfully graduate from either.

After 1929, Johnson left New York City,  and returned to Boston. In 1933, Johnson married William Warner Hubbell III. Together, they had one child, whom they named Abigail. Years after the birth of her child, it is understood that Helene and her husband William divorced. Although it is known that a divorce occurred from sources close to the pair, there is no legal documentation of this occurring. Helene never remarried.

After her move to Boston where these family issues occurred, she did not publish any more poetry.<ref name="Helene Johnson Hubbell" /> Helene made this decision regardless of her previous awards and recognition and decided to stop writing for the public completely. Many of Johnson's readers were confused by her disappearance, but Johnson never explained the reason she made this decision.

Although she was well known for the poetry that she and already produced, she left Boston and resettled down in Manhattan, in New York City, New York, and worked jobs that were unrelated to poetry. Along with ending her formal career in poetry, she also began staying away from all media,<ref name="Fillman-2017" /> even if it was praise. She made sure to stay away from cameras and curious media outlets. However, even out of the eye of the public, Johnson continued to write, and eventually, her work appeared in anthologies.<ref name="Foundation">{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=2023-10-06 |title=Helene Johnson |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/helene-johnson |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref>

After a long and quiet life, Helene Johnson died on her 89th birthday on July 7, 1995<ref name="Foundation"/> in [[Manhattan]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=July 11, 1995 |title=Helene Johnson, Poet of Harlem, 89, Dies |language=en |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/11/obituaries/helene-johnson-poet-of-harlem-89-dies.html |access-date=2023-10-09}}</ref>