McKay photographed circa 1925. Festus Claudius McKay (September 15, 1889 - May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet, and a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote four novels: Home to Harlem (1928), a bestseller that won the Harmon
McKay photographed circa 1925. Festus Claudius McKay (September 15, 1889 - May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet, and a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He wrote four novels: Home to Harlem (1928), a bestseller that won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature, Banjo (1929), Banana Bottom (1933), and in 1941 a manuscript called Amiable With Big Teeth: A Novel of the Love Affair Between the Communists and the Poor Black Sheep of Harlem that has not yet been published. He also authored collections of poetry, a collection of short stories, Gingertown (1932), two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home (1937) and My Green Hills of Jamaica (published posthumously), and a non-fiction, socio-historical treatise entitled Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). His 1922 poetry collection, Harlem Shadows, was among the first books published during the Harlem Renaissance. His Selected Poems was published posthumously, in 1953. He was attracted to communism in his early life, but he always asserted that he never became an official member of the Communist Party USA. He became an American citizen in 1940. He embraced the social teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, to which he converted in 1944. He died from a heart attack in 1948 at the age of 59.
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