Claude
McKay
BY :
TERRELL
SMITH
6/3/15
Autobiography
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Claude McKay was born Sept. 15,1890 in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica.
McKay was sent at an early age to live with his oldest brother, a schoolteacher, so that
he could be given the best education available.
At the age of ten, Claude McKay began to write poetry.
By the time he immigrated to the United States in 1912, McKay had established
himself as a poet, publishing two volumes of dialect verse, Songs of Jamaica (1912)
and Constab Ballads (1912).
McKay enrolled at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama with the intention of studying
agronomy; it was here that he first encountered the harsh realities of American
racism.
In 1914 a financial gift from Jekyll enabled him to move to New York, where he
invested in a restaurant and married his childhood sweetheart, Eulalie Imelda Lewars.
General Career
 In 1928, McKay published his most famous novel, Home to
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Harlem, which won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature
McKay's other novels were Banjo (1929), and Banana
Bottom
McKay also authored a collection of short stories,
Gingertown (1932), two autobiographical books, A Long
Way from Home (1937) and My Green Hills of Jamaica
(published posthumously in 1979), and a non-fiction, sociohistorical treatise entitled Harlem: Negro Metropolis
(1940).
Spring in New Hampshire and Other Poems (1920)
The Selected Poems of Claude McKay (1953
Specific Work
Renaissance Link
 Claude McKay had many works published and they
served a great impact on the Harlem Renaissance. They
revolved around black life and cultures.
 His books gave readers his view on Harlem and its ways,
impacting opinions and ways people saw Harlem and
black life. His novels gave readers a view on black life,
and though controversial, helped the fight for their rights
and equality.
 Along with his novels, McKay poetry had great impact
on the Renaissance as well. His most famous and
influential poem, If We Must Die, gained a great deal of
attention and reassured his stand in the Harlem
Renaissance.
If We Must Die" and "The White House
by: Claude McKay
Bibliography
 https://sites.google.com/site/weiszmichelle/claude-
mckay-s-impact-on-the-harlem-renaissance
 www.biography.com/people/claude-mckay-9392654
 www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/mckay/li
fe.htm claude mckay harlem renaissance
 wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_McKay claude mckay
major works