McKay, Claude
1889-1948 · Contribution: 1922-1928
Literature & Writing
Author of 'Home to Harlem,' the first commercially successful novel by a Black writer in the United States
Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1889-1948
- Category
- Literature & Writing
Impact on the world
McKay gave the Harlem Renaissance both a defiant poetic voice and its first best-selling novel, proving Black literature could command a mass readership.
Sources
- Poetry Foundation
1 more sources and references are available to members.
More in Literature & Writing
Angelou, Maya
1928-2014
Author of 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'; first African American woman to recite an original poem at a U.S. presidential inauguration
Baldwin, James
1924-1987
Author of 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' and 'The Fire Next Time'; one of the first major Black writers to write openly about homosexuality
Baraka, Amiri
1934-2014
Poetry, drama, fiction, and jazz/blues criticism; the play 'Dutchman' (1964), poetry collections 'Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note' (1961) and 'The Dead Lecturer' (1964), and the music history 'Blues People' (1963)
Brooks, Gwendolyn
1917-2000
First African American to win a Pulitzer Prize, awarded in 1950 for her poetry collection 'Annie Allen'