Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance

Although he is recognized today as one of the genuine pioneers of black literature in this century-the author of "If We Must Die," Home to Harlem, Banana Bottom, and A Long Way from Home, among other works-Claude McKay (1890-1948) died penniless and almost forgotten in a Chicago hospital. In this masterly study, Wayne Cooper presents a fascinating, detailed account of McKay's complex, often chaotic, and frequently contradictory life.
In his poetry and fiction, as well as in his political and social commentaries, McKay searched for a solid foundation for a valid black identity among the working-class cultures of the West Indies and the United States. He was an undeniably important predecessor to such younger writers of the Harlem Renaissance as Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen and also to influential West Indian and African writers such as C. L. R. James and Aime Cesaire.

WAYNE F. COOPER is the editor of The Passion of Claude McKay: Selected Prose and Poetry, 1912-1948. He lives in Vinal Haven, Maine.