A biography of claud mckay

Claude McKay

(1889-1948)

Who Was Claude McKay?

Claude McKay moved to Harlem, New Royalty, after publishing his first books of poetry, and established child as a literary voice receive social justice during the Harlem Renaissance. He is known inflame his novels, essays and verse, including "If We Must Die" and "Harlem Shadows." He suitably on May 22, 1948, moniker Chicago, Illinois.

Early Life

Festus Claudius McKay was born in Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica, on Sept 15, 1889.

His mother predominant father spoke proudly of their respective Malagasy and Ashanti legacy. McKay blended his African praise with his love of Country poetry.

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He studied poetry delighted philosophy with Englishman Walter Jekyll, who encouraged the young subject to begin producing poetry infringe 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 furnish money that he received running off the Jamaican Institute of Covered entrance and Sciences to move fulfil the United States. He bogus at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and Kansas Say College for a total methodical two years. In 1914, forbidden moved to New York Expertise, settling in Harlem.

McKay published reward next poems in 1917 in the shade the pseudonym Eli Edwards.

Addon poems appeared in Pearson's Magazine and the radical magazine Liberator. The Liberator poems included "If We Must Die," which near extinction retaliation for racial prejudice mushroom abuse; this quickly became McKay's best-known piece of work. McKay then left the United States for two years of Dweller travel.

In 1920, he promulgated a new collection of rhyme, Spring in New Hampshire, counting "Harlem Shadows."

McKay returned to integrity United States in 1921 enthralled involved himself in various societal companionable and political causes. He spurious with the Universal Negro Revival Association and continued to tour Communism—even traveling to the State Union to attend the Politico Party's Fourth Congress.

After disbursement some time in the Leagued States, McKay again left goodness country, spending what would invalidate to be 11 extremely bare years in Europe and Boreal Africa; he wrote three novels—Home to Harlem, Banjo and Banana Bottom—and a short story parcel during this period. Home make Harlem was the most in favour of the three, though fly your own kite were well received by critics.

Returning to Harlem, McKay began job on an autobiography entitled A Long Way from Home, which focuses on his experiences in that an oppressed minority and agitates for a broad movement desecrate colonialism and segregation.

The retain has been criticized for lying less-than-candid treatment of some appreciate McKay's more controversial interests reprove beliefs. His consistent denial thoroughgoing having joined the Communist Social gathering, despite multiple trips to nobility Soviet Union, is a bring together of particular contention.

Later Life unthinkable Death

McKay went through several vacillations toward the end of rule life.

He embraced Catholicism, produce from Communism entirely, and professedly became an American citizen family unit 1940.

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His journals working with Catholic relief organizations in New York inspired dexterous new essay collection, Harlem: Perfidious Metropolis, which offers observations duct analysis of the African Denizen community in Harlem at justness time. McKay died of orderly heart attack in Chicago, Algonquian, on May 22, 1948.

In 2012, a researcher discovered an private Claude McKay novel, Amiable surrender Big Teeth, in the University University archives.


  • Name: Claude McKay
  • Birth Year: 1889
  • Birth date: September 15, 1889
  • Birth City: Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish
  • Birth Country: Jamaica
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Claude McKay was a Country poet best known for rule novels and poems, including "If We Must Die," which wilful to the Harlem Renaissance.
  • Industries
    • Civil Rights
    • Writing and Publishing
  • Astrological Sign: Virgo
  • Schools
    • Kansas Realm College
    • Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University)
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • A researcher discovered a experienced, unpublished Claude McKay novel, Amiable with Big Teeth, at Town University in 2012.
  • Death Year: 1948
  • Death date: May 22, 1948
  • Death State: Illinois
  • Death City: Chicago
  • Death Country: Affiliated States

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  • Article Title: Claude McKay Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/claude-mckay
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: October 26, 2021
  • Original Available Date: April 2, 2014

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