Claude McKay
Jamaican-born American writer Claude McKay figured prominently in the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s; his works include collections of poetry, such as
Constab Ballads
(1912), and novels, including
Home to Harlem
(1928).
Home to Harlem, a best-seller, won Festus Claudius McKay, a poet and a seminal figure, the Harmon gold award for literature.
He also wrote novels
Banjo
and
Banana Bottom
. People not yet published his manuscript, called
Amiable with Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem
, of 1941.
McKay also authored collections of poetry, a collection of short stories,
Gingertown
. He authored two autobiographical books,
A Long Way from Home
and
My Green Hills of Jamaica
, published posthumously. He entitled a non-fiction, socio-historical treatise
Harlem: Negro Metropolis
. People published his poetry collection,
Harlem Shadows
, in 1922 among the first books during the Harlem renaissance. Survivors published his
Selected Poems
posthumously in 1953.
“If We Must DieIf we must die, let it not be like hogsHunted and penned in an inglorious spot,While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,Making their mock at our accursèd lot.If we must die, O let us nobly die,So that our precious blood may not be shedIn vain; then even the monsters we defyShall be constrained to honor us though dead!O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!What though before us lies the open grave?Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!”
“Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted, I shun all signs of anchorage, because The zest of life exceeds the bound of laws.”