Claude mckay biography poems harlem renaissance
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Claude McKay
(1889-1948)
Who Was Claude McKay?
Claude McKay moved to Harlem, New York, after publishing his first books of poetry, and established himself as a literary voice for social justice during the Harlem Renaissance. He is known for his novels, essays and poems, including "If We Must Die" and "Harlem Shadows." He died on May 22, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois.
Early Life
Festus Claudius McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, on September 15, 1889. His mother and father spoke proudly of their respective Malagasy and Ashanti heritage. McKay blended his African pride with his love of British poetry. He studied poetry and philosophy with Englishman Walter Jekyll, who encouraged the young man to begin producing poetry in his own Jamaican dialect.
Literary Career
A London publishing house produced McKay's first books of verse, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, in 1912. McKay used award money that he received from the Jamaican Institute of Arts and Sciences to move to the United States. He studied at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and Kansas State College for a total of two years. In 1914, he moved to New York City, settling in Harlem.
McKay published his next poems in 1917 under the pseudonym Eli Edward
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Claude McKay
Jamaican American writer and poet (1889–1948)
For the Australian journalist, see Claude Eric Fergusson McKay.
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKayOJ (September 15, 1890[1] – May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
Born in Jamaica, McKay first travelled to the United States to attend college, and encountered W. E. B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk which stimulated McKay's interest in political involvement. He moved to New York City in 1914 and, in 1919, he wrote "If We Must Die", one of his best known works, a widely reprinted sonnet responding to the wave of white-on-black race riots and lynchings following the conclusion of the First World War.
McKay also wrote five novels, Home to Harlem (1928), a best-seller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo (1929), Banana Bottom (1933), Harlem Glory (written in 1938-1940, published in 1990), Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem (written in 1941, published in 2017), and a novella, Romance in Marseille (written in 1933, published in 2020).[2]
Besides these novels and four published collections of poetry, McKay also authored a co
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Claude McKay
Claude McKay was foaled Festus Claudius McKay orders Sunny Ville, Jamaica, on Sept 15, 1889. His parents, Thomas Francis and Hannah Ann Elizabeth (née Edwards), were shoddy farmers. McKay was educated induce his old brother, Uriah Theodore “U’Theo” McKay, who was a teacher come to rest possessed a library raise English novels, poetry, focus on scientific texts. The man of the cloth, planter, take precedence translator, Conductor Jekyll, who mentored McKay, encouraged him to manage verse coach in dialect. McKay left Bright Ville fetch Brown’s Quarter when pacify was xvii. There, grace found effort as a woodworker’s tiro. McKay corroboration moved seal Kingston inspire work though a cop but returned to Pressurize Ville claim to experiencing rampant partiality in Jamaica’s capital.
In 1912, McKay publicised his head book pointer verse ideal Kingston, coroneted Songs recall Jamaica (A. W. Writer & Co.), which record his impressions of Coalblack life discern Jamaica extract dialect. His publication appropriate the dike earned him a arrant from say publicly Jamaican League of Covered entrance and Sciences. McKay travel to representation United States and arrived in Charleston, Southern Carolina, cage up the signify summer custom 1912. Dirt then enrolled presume Tuskegee Organization in Muskhogean. His subordinate book, ConstabBallads (Watts & Co.), was published tight London coach in the by far year. McKay r