Writer, born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica. He had already published two volumes in Jamaican dialect before he arrived in the USA to study at Tuskegee Institute, AL (1912) and Kansas State (191214). He moved to New York City and began to publish his poems under his pseudonym. By this time he was having an influence on Harlem Renaissance, and was also widely respected internationally. He lived abroad (192234), returning to New York in poor health. In addition to his major work, Harlem Shadows (1922), he wrote novels, such as Home to Harlem (1928), short stories, an autobiography, and the sociological study, Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940).
Claude McKay (September 15, 1889 – May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican writer, humanist and communist. McKay also authored a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), and two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His book of poetry, Harlem Shadows (1922) was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. His book of collected poems, Selected Poems (1953), was published posthumously.
Early life
Born in James Hill, Clarendon, Jamaica, McKay was the youngest in a large family. His father, Thomas McKay was a peasant, but had enough property to qualify to vote.
McKay's next volume, Constab Ballads came out the same year and were based on his experience as a police officer in Jamaica. McKay was shocked by the intense racism he encountered in Charleston, South Carolina. Du Bois Souls of Black Folk which had a major impact on McKay.
Despite doing well in exams, in 1914 McKay decided he did not want to be an agronomist and went to New York where he married his childhood sweetheart Eulalie Lewars.
Political activism
It was several years before McKay had two poems published in 1917 in Seven Arts under the pseudonym Eli Edwards. However McKay continued to work as a waiter on the railways. In 1919 he met Crystal and Max Eastman who produced The Liberator (where McKay would serve as Co-Executive Editor until 1922). It was here that Claude published one of his most famous poems If We Must Die during the "Red Summer", a period of intense racial violence against Black people in Anglo-American societies.
McKay became involved with a group of Black radicals who were unhappy both with Marcus Garvey's nationalism and the middle class reformist NAACP. However McKay soon left for London, England.
Hubert Harrison had asked McKay to write for Garvey's Negro World, but only a few copies of the paper have survived from this period, none of which contain any articles by McKay. McKay used to frequent a soldier's club in Drury Lane and the International Socialist Club in Shoreditch. It was during this period that McKay's commitment to socialism deepened and he read Marx assiduously. At the International Socialist Club McKay met Saklatvala, A.
In 1920 the Daily Herald, a socialist paper published by George Lansbury, included a racist article written by E. Entitled 'Black Scourge in Europe: Sexual Horror Let Loose by France on the Rhine' it insinuated gross hypersexuality on African people in general, but Lansbury refused to print McKay's response to this racist slur.
When Sylvia Pankhurst was arrested under the Defense of the Realm Act for publishing articles "calculated and likely to cause sedition amongst His Majesty's forces, in the Navy, and among the civilian population," McKay had his rooms searched.
Home to Harlem and other writings
In 1928 McKay published his most famous novel, Home to Harlem (1928), which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature.
Despite this, the book drew fire from one of McKay's heroes, W.E.B. To DuBois, the novel's frank depictions of sexuality and the nightlife in Harlem only appealed to the "prurient demand[s]" of white readers and publishers looking for portrayals of black "licentiousness."
McKay's other novels were Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933). McKay also authored a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), and two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His book of collected poems, Selected Poems (1953), was published posthumously.
Becoming disillusioned with communism, McKay embraced the social teachings of the Roman Catholic church and was baptized.
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