Claude+McKay

=Claude McKay was born in Jamaica on September 15th,1890. He began writing poetry as a schoolboy. He worked as a policeman in Spanish Town and when he was twenty-two had his first poem published, “Songs Of Jamaica”. In 1912 McKay moved to the United States where he attended The Tuskeege institute in Alabama and Kansas State University. He continued to write poetry and in 1919 he published his most famous poem, “If We Must Die”. Later that year Claude travled to London where he met George Bernard Shaw, a whiteman who helped him with his poetry. While he was in london he read a lot of Karl Marx’s work, and later became socialist. =

He returned back to New York and became associate editor of a newspaper called “The Liberator". Over the next year the journal published articles by McKay such as "How Black Sees Green and Red" and "He Who Gets Slapped". He also published his best known volume of poetry, Harlem Shadows. In 1922 McKay went to Third International in Moscow where he represented the American Workers Party. He returned back to Europe where he wrote "Trial by Lynching: Stories About Negro Life in America",and "Home to Harlem",a novel about a disappointed black soldier in the US Army who returns from the Western Front to live in a black ghetto. This was followed by other novels such as "Banjo","Gingertown",and "Banana Bottom".

He later married Eulalie Imelda Edwards. After his marrige he found he was unable to make a living from writing, McKay found work in a shipbuilding yard. In 1943 he suffered from a stroke and the following year was baptized into the Roman Catholic faith. He died in Chicago from his stroke. **By: J.M.G-2 **

Claude Mckay was was a well-known writer during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was a glorius age in which the african american population grew and prospered. Claude Mckay was born December 15, 1889 in SunnyVille, Jamica. Most would think that Claude Makay’s name is claude mckay, in fact his birth name is Festus Claudius McKay. He was the youngest of eleven children. Unfotunately, only eight survived. Luckily for us, Claude was one of them. When he was young, he had a very strong relationship with his mother. She was kind and nuturing, quite the opposite of his stern father. In 1909, his mother died. This tradgedy devasted Claude more than anyone else. This dark point in time very well could’ve been a spark to one of his greatest works. When he was young Claude McKay wasn’t fond of whites, except for one. He was greatly influenced by an englishman named Walter Jekyll. In fact, it was he who gave young Claude a taste of poetry. When he was seventeen, Claude McKay left SunnyVille to be apprenticed to a cabnitmaker. He moved to america and started to dabble in the literary arts. He married Eulalie Imelda Edwards. He died in Chicago. **By: R.C.S - 3 **



=His Poetry = =1. =

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If we must die—let it not be like hogs Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot, While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs, Making their mock at our accursed lot. If we must die—oh, let us nobly die, So that our precious blood may not be shed In vain; then even the monsters we defy Shall be constrained to honor us though dead! Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe; Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave, And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow! What though before us lies the open grave? Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! ======

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Click here to listen to Claude McKay read an excerpt from "If We Must Die" ======

=2. = Bananas ripe and green, and ginger root Cocoa in pods and alligator pears, And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit, Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs, Sat in the window, bringing memories of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills, And dewy dawns, and mystical skies In benediction over nun-like hills. My eyes grow dim, and I could no more gaze; A wave of longing through my body swept, And, hungry for the old, familiar ways I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.

<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Click here to listen to Claude McKay read an excerpt from "The Tropics in New York"

=__<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Citations __= Scribner,Charles. “ Claude McKay.” // Gale Biography in Context //. N.p, 1998. // Discus. // Web. 2/15/11   n/a. “Claude McKay” // African American Biography //. 1994. Print Carl Van Vechten, Claude McKay, Web, poets.org