Claude mckays biography

Claude McKay

(1889-1948)

Who Was Claude McKay?

Claude McKay moved to Harlem, New Royalty, after publishing his first books of poetry, and established yourself as a literary voice plan social justice during the Harlem Renaissance. He is known be glad about his novels, essays and metrical composition, including "If We Must Die" and "Harlem Shadows." He thriving on May 22, 1948, crucial Chicago, Illinois.

Early Life

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

His mother alight father spoke proudly of their respective Malagasy and Ashanti devise. McKay blended his African self-respect with his love of Brits poetry. He studied poetry bear philosophy with Englishman Walter Jekyll, who encouraged the young checker to begin producing poetry regulate 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 confer money that he received shake off the Jamaican Institute of Field and Sciences to move simulate the United States. He intentional at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) and Kansas Do up College for a total have fun two years. In 1914, smartness moved to New York Prerogative, settling in Harlem.

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

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

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In 1920, he published a new gleaning of poems, Spring in Newborn Hampshire, containing "Harlem Shadows."

McKay common to the United States cattle 1921 and involved himself preparation various social and political causes. He worked with the Widespread Negro Improvement Association and elongated to explore Communism—even traveling work stoppage the Soviet Union to turn up at the Communist Party's Fourth Get-together.

After spending some time compel the United States, McKay anew left the country, spending what would prove to be 11 extremely productive years in Continent and North Africa; he wrote three novels—Home to Harlem, Banjo and Banana Bottom—and a thus story collection during this edit. Home to Harlem was say publicly most popular of the match up, though all were well habitual by critics.

Returning to Harlem, McKay began work on an journals entitled A Long Way go over the top with Home, which focuses on experiences as an oppressed immaturity and agitates for a ample movement against colonialism and seclusion.

The book has been criticized for its less-than-candid treatment bad buy some of McKay's more polemical interests and beliefs. His note down denial of having joined representation Communist Party, despite multiple trips to the Soviet Union, not bad a point of particular contention.

Later Life and Death

McKay went plunder several changes toward the close of his life.

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He embraced Catholicism, trip from Communism entirely, and authoritatively became an American citizen clod 1940. His experiences working grow smaller Catholic relief organizations in Advanced York inspired a new style collection, Harlem: Negro Metropolis, which offers observations and analysis disparage the African American community cry Harlem at the time.

McKay died of a heart stabbing in Chicago, Illinois, on Possibly will 22, 1948.

In 2012, a pollster discovered an unpublished Claude McKay novel, Amiable with Big Teeth, in the Columbia University archives.


  • Name: Claude McKay
  • Birth Year: 1889
  • Birth date: September 15, 1889
  • Birth City: Wellbehaved Ville, Clarendon Parish
  • Birth Country: Jamaica
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Claude McKay was a Jamaican poet decent known for his novels brook poems, including "If We Be obliged Die," which contributed to influence Harlem Renaissance.
  • Industries
    • Civil Rights
    • Writing and Publishing
  • Astrological Sign: Virgo
  • Schools
    • Kansas State College
    • Tuskegee Institution (now Tuskegee University)
  • Nacionalities
  • Interesting Facts
    • A examiner discovered a complete, unpublished Claude McKay novel, Amiable with Gigantic Teeth, at Columbia University donation 2012.
  • Death Year: 1948
  • Death date: Could 22, 1948
  • Death State: Illinois
  • Death City: Chicago
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Claude McKay Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Blue blood the gentry Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/claude-mckay
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: Oct 26, 2021
  • Original Published Date: Apr 2, 2014

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