Containing more than three hundred poems, including nearly a hundred previously unpublished works, this unique collection showcases the intellectual range of Claude McKay (1889-1948), the Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose life and work were marked by restless travel and steadfast social protest. McKay's first poems were composed in rural Jamaican creole and launched his lifelong commitment to representing everyday black culture from the bottom up. Migrating to New York, he reinvigorated the English sonnet and helped spark the Harlem Renaissance with poems such as "If We Must Die." After coming under scrutiny for his communism, he traveled throughout Europe and North Africa for twelve years and returned to Harlem in 1934, having denounced Stalin's Soviet Union. By then, McKay's pristine "violent sonnets" were giving way to confessional lyrics informed by his newfound Catholicism. McKay's verse eludes easy definition, yet this complete anthology, vividly introduced and carefully annotated by William J. Maxwell, acquaints readers with the full transnational evolution of a major voice in twentieth-century poetry.
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (1890–1948) was a Jamaican-born American poet and writer famous for his central role in the Harlem Renaissance. After travelling to America to attend college, he came across W. E. B. Du Bois's "The Souls of Black Folk", which inspired in him an interest in politics. In 1914 he moved to New York City and five years later wrote his most famous work, "If We Must Die", a sonnet dealing with the spate of white-on-black race riots and lynchings that succeeded the First World War. McKay's political and literary endeavours eventually took him to Russia, where he collaborated on "The Negroes of America" (1923) and "Trial by Lynching" (1925), which explored American black-white racism from a Marxist class-conflict perspective. After coming to terms with the Authoritarianism of the Soviet Union, McKay left for Western Europe in 1923. This book contains a fantastic collection of McKay's most influential articles on race and politics, not to be missed by those with an interest in American history and global politics during the twentieth century. Contents include: "Claude Mckay by Robert Thomas Kerlin", "Socialism and the Negro”, "The Capitalist Way: Lettow-Vorbeck", "A Black Man Replies", "Review of First Principles of Working Class Education", "Communists and the Local Councils of Action", "The Revolution in Currency", "The Yellow Peril and the Dockers", "How Black Sees Green and Red", etc. Other notable works by this author include: "Gingertown" (1932), "A Long Way from Home" (1937) and "My Green Hills of Jamaica" (1979). Read & Co. Books are proudly publishing this brand new collection of classic articles, now complete with an introductory biography from Robert Thomas Kerlin's "Negro Poets and their Poems" (1923).
McKay's account of his long odyssey from Jamaica to Harlem and then on to France, Britain, North Africa, Russia, and finally back to America. As well as depicting his own experiences, the author describes his encounters with such notable personalities as Charlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Leon Trotsky, W. E. B. Du Bois, Isadora Duncan, Paul Robeson, and Sinclair Lewis.
New compilation of verse by an important Jamaican-American poet. Dialect verse, standard English poems from Harlem Shadows, uncollected works, more. Edited and with an introduction by Joan R. Sherman.
A Black American longshoreman struggles to feel at home after returning from service in WWI in this classic Harlem Renaissance novel. When America joins World War I in 1917, Jake Brown enlists, ready to fight the Germans and become a hero. Yet when he arrives in France, he’s treated more like a slave than a soldier. He spends his time toting around lumber and picking fights with his white comrades. After deserting his post, he finds work and contentment in London’s East End. But a race riot soon drives him to return home to Harlem . . . Back in the United States, Jake longs to settle down. He searches for work, friendship, and love, but to find and keep them proves challenging, especially while Jake is haunted by the violence of his past. Still, he chooses to rise above it all . . . Originally published in 1928, Home to Harlem renders a lively portrait of the New York City neighborhood in the 1920s, while depicting the life of single, working-class, Black men in the industrial Northeast following the First World War.
Songs of Jamaica (1912) is a poetry collection by Claude McKay. Published before the poet left Jamaica for the United States, Songs of Jamaica is a pioneering collection of verse written in Jamaican Patois, the first of its kind. As a committed leftist, McKay was a keen observer of the Black experience in the Caribbean, the American South, and later in New York, where he gained a reputation during the Harlem Renaissance for celebrating the resilience and cultural achievement of the African American community while lamenting the poverty and violence they faced every day. “Quashie to Buccra,” the opening poem, frames this schism in terms of labor, as one class labors to fulfill the desires of another: “You tas’e petater an’ you say it sweet, / But you no know how hard we wuk fe it; / You want a basketful fe quattiewut, / ‘Cause you no know how ‘tiff de bush fe cut.” Addressing himself to a white audience, he exposes the schism inherent to colonial society between white and black, rich and poor. Advising his white reader to question their privileged consumption, dependent as it is on the subjugation of Jamaica’s black community, McKay warns that “hardship always melt away / Wheneber it comes roun’ to reapin’ day.” This revolutionary sentiment carries throughout Songs of Jamaica, finding an echo in the brilliant poem “Whe’ fe do?” Addressed to his own people, McKay offers hope for a brighter future to come: “We needn’ fold we han’ an’ cry, / Nor vex we heart wid groan and sigh; / De best we can do is fe try / To fight de despair drawin’ night: / Den we might conquer by an’ by— / Dat we might do.” With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Claude McKay’s Songs of Jamaica is a classic of Jamaican literature reimagined for modern readers.
The pioneering novel of physical disability, transatlantic travel, and black international politics. A vital document of black modernism and one of the earliest overtly queer fictions in the African American tradition. Published for the first time. A Penguin Classic A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice/Staff Pick Vulture's Ten Best Books of 2020 pick Buried in the archive for almost ninety years, Claude McKay's Romance in Marseille traces the adventures of a rowdy troupe of dockworkers, prostitutes, and political organizers--collectively straight and queer, disabled and able-bodied, African, European, Caribbean, and American. Set largely in the culture-blending Vieux Port of Marseille at the height of the Jazz Age, the novel takes flight along with Lafala, an acutely disabled but abruptly wealthy West African sailor. While stowing away on a transatlantic freighter, Lafala is discovered and locked in a frigid closet. Badly frostbitten by the time the boat docks, the once-nimble dancer loses both of his lower legs, emerging from life-saving surgery as what he terms "an amputated man." Thanks to an improbably successful lawsuit against the shipping line, however, Lafala scores big in the litigious United States. Feeling flush after his legal payout, Lafala doubles back to Marseille and resumes his trans-African affair with Aslima, a Moroccan courtesan. With its scenes of black bodies fighting for pleasure and liberty even when stolen, shipped, and sold for parts, McKay's novel explores the heritage of slavery amid an unforgiving modern economy. This first-ever edition of Romance in Marseille includes an introduction by McKay scholars Gary Edward Holcomb and William J. Maxwell that places the novel within both the "stowaway era" of black cultural politics and McKay's challenging career as a star and skeptic of the Harlem Renaissance.
A monumental literary event: the newly discovered final novel by seminal Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay, a rich and multilayered portrayal of life in 1930s Harlem and a historical protest for black freedom The unexpected discovery in 2009 of a completed manuscript of Claude McKay’s final novel was celebrated as one of the most significant literary events in recent years. Building on the already extraordinary legacy of McKay’s life and work, this colorful, dramatic novel centers on the efforts by Harlem intelligentsia to organize support for the liberation of fascist-controlled Ethiopia, a crucial but largely forgotten event in American history. At once a penetrating satire of political machinations in Depression-era Harlem and a far-reaching story of global intrigue and romance, Amiable with Big Teeth plunges into the concerns, anxieties, hopes, and dreams of African-Americans at a moment of crisis for the soul of Harlem—and America. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known to his drifter cohorts on the 1920s Marseille waterfront as Banjo, passes his days panhandling and dreaming of starting his own band. At night Banjo and his buddies prowl the rough waterfront bistros, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking. When Ray, a writer, joins the group, it triggers Banjo's rediscovery of his African roots and his feeling that, at last, he belongs to a race weighted, tested and poised in the universal scheme. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.
First published in 1912, "Constab Ballads" is a classic poetry collection with the main focus based on the police force of McKay's time, including his famous poem "If We Must Die". Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (1890–1948) was a Jamaican-born American poet and writer famous for his central role in the Harlem Renaissance. After travelling to America to attend college, he came across W. E. B. Du Bois's "The Souls of Black Folk", which inspired in him an interest in politics. In 1914 he moved to New York City and five years later wrote his most famous work, "If We Must Die", a sonnet dealing with the spate of white-on-black race riots and lynchings that succeeded the First World War. McKay's political and literary endeavours eventually took him to Russia, where he collaborated on "The Negroes of America" (1923) and "Trial by Lynching" (1925), which explored American black-white racism from a Marxist class-conflict perspective. After coming to terms with the Authoritarianism of the Soviet Union, McKay left for Western Europe in 1923. Highly recommended for those interested in American history and global politics during the twentieth century. Contents include: "De Route March", "Flat-Foot Drill", "Bennie's Departure", "Consolation", "Fire Practice", "Second-Class Constable Alston", "Last Words of the Dying Recruit", "Bound Fe Duty", etc. Ragged Hand is proudly republishing this collection of classic poetry, complete with an introductory excerpt by the author.
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