Claude McKay

From Harlem Renaissance

1 Childhood
2 School
3 His Writing Style
4 His Works And Career
5 Love Life
6 McKay's Views On Communism
7 Death
8 Selected Works By Claude McKay
9 "Poetry" By Claude McKay
10 References

Childhood

Claude McKay was born September 15th 1890 in Sunny Ville, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. His parents Thomas Francis McKay and Hannah Ann Elizabeth Edwards named him Festus Claudius McKay. Of all eleven of his siblings Claude McKay was the youngest and his mother's favorite. However, only eight of Hannah's children lived to adulthood. His parents were thought of as kind-hearted community leaders. Hannah was also known as "Mother Mac" because, though against her morals, she helped women who had gotten pregnant before marriage. Hannah was very warm and caring and got along with most. Sadly Hannah died of dropsy (heart failure) December 19th 1909. His Father Thomas was more withdrawn and his relationship with McKay was a huge contrast to McKay's relationship with his mother. Thomas worked as the senior deacon at Mt. Zion, the church the family attended.

School

McKay began school at Mt. Zion at the age of four. McKay's parents wanted the best possible education for him. Therefore, at around age six McKay was sent to live with his older brother, Uriah, who was a schoolteacher. Uriah also owned a library, and their parents thought that this experience would augment McKay's education. With access to so much literature, McKay became a passionate reader. His brother's library introduced McKay to English novels, scientific texts, and poems. At the age of ten McKay began writing his own poetry. Uriah was an agnostic who taught McKay the practice of freethinking. At age 14 McKay made the decision to return to his beloved parents. When McKay turned sixteen in 1906, he went to Kingston and attended trade school. Unfortunately, the school was destroyed in a massive earthquake less than a year later. McKay was nearly crushed himself when the walls of his room caved in. The earthquake had a large impact on McKay. Looking back on the destruction McKay said: "I went out that afternoon to go to the center of the city, where my cousin lived... the bricks had piled up in the streets. There were dead bodies all around, groans of those who were trapped, and the stench of burning bodies, turned me back."

McKay was inspired by Booker T. Washington, the principal and founder of the Tuskegee Institute and enrolled in his school in Alabama. Some years later, McKay registered in Tuskegee College, though he soon transferred to Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas to study agriculture.

From 1907 to 1909, McKay apprenticed under "Old Brenga," a cabinet and carriage maker. While under Old Brenga's influence, he encountered Walter Jekyll, a white man who further motivated his writing career. Walter Jekyll became McKay's guardian for two years while he was in Kansas. McKay later published an article in McClure's Magazine that described how much Kansas bored him.

His Writing Style

McKay was a noted poet for many reasons. One reason was because of his writing style, which unlike other famous writers of his time, sounded "white." He demonstrated the fact that African American people had the same intellectual abilities as non-African Americans by writing in a style similar to those of the mainstream non-African American writers. He was criticized for this approach, because it was believed that he should write in the style of other African Americans. Despite his style, the themes for his poems and novels were of African American Life, racism, and politics. His most famous poem, a sonnet called If We Must Die, talks about the Red Summer in 1919, a time where there was an extensive amount of violence against African Americans.

His Works And Career

He published his first book of poems, Songs of Jamaica, in 1912 at age twenty-two. In that same year he wrote another volume of poems called Constab Ballads. Later in his life he managed to get his work published in the Daily Gleaner and Jamaica Times, two of the principal Jamaican newspapers. In 1918 two renowned editors, Frank Harris, editor of Person's magazine, and Max Eastman, editor of a white journal called the Liberator, acknowledged Claude McKay’s works. Max Eastman befriended McKay and soon Eastman took on the role of McKay's former mentor, Walter Jekyll. The next year, If We Must Die was published in the Liberator. Over-time McKay became the associate editor of the Liberator. No African American, before McKay, was able to publish works in the Liberator, an all white magazine; nor had they ever managed to become editor of it. During the next year many of McKay’s works appeared in the Liberator, including Harlem Shadows, possibly McKay's most illustrious volume of verse. Throughout the years McKay traveled to Berlin, Russia, Paris, England and all over the US. Because of his travels his work was published in a variety of magazines such as McClure's Magazine, Dreadnought, Cambridge Magazine, Crisis, Survey Graphic, and many more. Ironically, though McKay was very accomplished in his writing career, he had a hard life as a black man constantly dealing with racism. For example, in the poem The White House, McKay writes: "Your door is shut against my tightened face,/ and I am sharp as steel with discontent," which depicts his strong feelings about racism. A famous venue for jazz music was the Cotton Club. It featured some of the best black musicians of that time such as Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and Louis Armstrong. However, it was limited to white audiences. This means that, although McKay possessed talent in other art forms, he would not have been welcomed there.

Love Life

In 1914 McKay was given a large sum of money by Walter Jekyll so he could marry Eulalie Imelda Lewars, his childhood sweetheart. They were married July 30, 1914 in New Jersey. Much of the money was invested in him becoming a restaurateur, however the restaurant only lasted a few months. Some time later Eulalie left McKay and went to Jamaica to give birth to their only child. Claude never saw his child and disregarded his relationship with his wife after she tried to get them together again. Afterwards McKay had a series of relationships with people of both genders.

McKay's Views On Communism

Originally when McKay came to the US he was a communist. He became very devoted to communism in 1920, however his beliefs would soon change. April of that same year, he met a woman by the name of Sylvia Pankhurst. She played an enormous role in social justice for women. McKay happened to be a member of Pankhurst's communist sect, but while in this group he began to have his doubts about communism. Then on July 31st, McKay joined the Communist Unity Conferences, and in 1922 he traveled to Russia as a communist representative. However, he eventually lost faith in communism in 1937.