McKay, Claude, 1890-1948
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person
McKay, Claude, 1890-1948
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Surname :
McKay
Forename :
Claude
Date :
1890-1948
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McKay, Festus Claudius, 1890-1948
Computed Name Heading
Name Components
Surname :
McKay
Forename :
Festus Claudius
Date :
1890-1948
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Biographical History
Author, poet. Born in Jamaica.
Claude McKay (1890-1948), novelist and poet.
Clarence McKay and Carl Zigrosser were friends in the 1930's. McKay's 3 letters invite Zigrosser to parties in Harlem and mention McKay's financial trouble. There is also a newspaper clippin about Earl Lewis Brown from 1965 in the file.
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born writer who spent most of his adult life in the United States, Europe and North Africa. He wrote several collections of poetry, novels, short stories, non-fiction and two autobiographical books. He is best known for an early poem, "If We Must Die" (1919), and his first novel, Home to Harlem (1928). He lived in the United States, primarily in New York, from 1913-1919, and then spent most of the next 15 years in England, Russia, France, Spain and Morocco before returning to New York in 1934. He contributed to many liberal and socialist journals, including Sylvia Pankhurst's Worker's Dreadnaught and Max Eastman's The Liberator, and he is commonly identified among the major writers of the Harlem Renaissance. He converted to Catholicism in 1944 and died in Chicago in 1948. See the standard biographical print resources for additional information.
Claude McKay, Jamaica-born poet, novelist, and essayist is acknowledged by literary critics as a leading spokesman of the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s.
Festus Claudius McKay, better known as Claude McKay, was a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance, a prominent literary movement of the 1920s. His work ranged from vernacular verse celebrating peasant life in Jamaica to fairly militant poems challenging white authority in America, and from generally straightforward tales of black life in both Jamaica and America to more philosophically ambitious fiction addressing instinctual/intellectual duality, which McKay found central to the black individual's efforts to cope in a racist society.
Claude McKay, born in Jamaica, is known as one of the major artists of the Harlem Renaissance, and authored several published and unpublished poems and novels.
- 1874, January 24Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Carlos Federico Schomburg and Mary Joseph.
- 1891, April 17Arrived in New York City.
- 1892Became a Mason and joined the El Sol de Cuba Lodge #38, a Spanish-speaking lodge in New York.
- 1892-1896Helped found and served as secretary to Las Dos Antillas, a political club committed to the goal of Cuban and Puerto Rican independence.
- 1895Married Elizabeth Hatcher (d.1900) from Staunton, Virginia.They had three children: Maximo Gomez, Arturo Alfonso Jr. and Kingsley Guarionex.
- 1901-1906Employed as messenger and clerk in the law firm of Pryor, Mellis and Harris, New York City.
- 1902Married his second wife, Elizabeth Morrow Taylor from Virginia. They had two children: Reginald Stanfield and Nathaniel Jose.
- 1904Published his first known article, Is Hayti Decadent? in The Unique Advertiser.
- 1906-1929Employed by the Bankers Trust Company, eventually becoming supervisor of the Caribbean and Latin American Mail Section.
- 1909Wrote a short pamphlet, Placido, a Cuban Martyr, about the poet and independence fighter, Gabriel de la Concepcion Valdez.
- 1911Helped organize and served as secretary of the Negro Society for Historical Research.
- 1914Married for the third and last time to Elizabeth Green. They had three children: Fernando Alfonso, Dolores Maria and Carlos Placido.
- 1918Elected Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge.
- 1920-1929Elected President of the American Negro Academy.
- 1925Wrote The Negro Digs Up His Past.
- 1926The New York Public Library purchased Schomburg's collection of books, manuscripts, and prints with a $10,000 grant from the Carnegie Foundation. The collection was deposited at the 135th Street Branch of The Library.
- 1926Traveled to Spain, France, Germany and England with funds from the sale of his collection.
- 1927Awarded the William E. Harmon Award, consisting of a Bronze Medal and $100, for outstanding work in the field of Education.
- 1931-1932Served as Curator of the Negro Collection at the library of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee.
- 1932Traveled to Cuba where he met Black Cuban artists and writers, and acquired material for the collection.
- 1932-1938Served as Curator of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art, 135th Street Branch, The New York Public Library.
- 1938, June 8Died, while serving as Curator of the Collection he both envisioned and spent his life creating.
For fuller biographical treatments of Arthur Schomburg's life, see:
Arthur A. Schomburg: A Biographical Essay by Victoria Ortiz in The Legacy of Arthur A. Schomburg: A Celebration of the Past, A Vision for the Future
Exhibition catalog. (New York: The New York Public Library, 1986).
Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney. Arthur Alfonso Schomburg: Black Bibliophile & Collector (The New York Public Library & Wayne State University Press, 1989).
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External Related CPF
https://viaf.org/viaf/2489725
https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1096967
https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n79058991
https://id.loc.gov/authorities/n79058991
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Languages Used
eng
Latn
Subjects
American literature
American literature
African American arts
African American authors
African American authors
African American Catholics
African American librarians
African Americans
African Americans
African Americans
African Americans and libraries
Authors, American
American poetry
Associations, institutions, etc.
Authors, Black
Authors, Caribbean
Authors, Jamaican
Authors, Jamaican
Black author
Book collectors
Conversion
Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
Jamaican Americans
Jamaican poetry
Public libraries
Young Men's Christian associations
Nationalities
Americans
Activities
Occupations
African American authors
African American civil rights workers
Authors
Poets
Legal Statuses
Places
Jamaica
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Jamaica
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
New York (State)--New York
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Jamaica
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Jamaica
as recorded (not vetted)
AssociatedPlace
Convention Declarations
<conventionDeclaration><citation>VIAF</citation></conventionDeclaration>