Product Description
Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay (1889-1948) came to the U.S. in 1912 and became an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. This inexpensive edition includes a representative sample of his Jamaican dialect verse, but concentrates on poems from Harlem Shadows (1922) and uncollected verse. Edited and with an Introduction by Joan R. Sherman.
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Customer Reviews (6)

Great novel
The novel is in great condition and will be a nice edition to my library.

A diverse collection by a gifted poet
"Selected Poems," by Claude McKay, is a wonderful volume by this noteworthy writer. This Dover edition, which is edited by Joan R. Sherman, includes a bibliography of work by McKay as well as an index of the poems in the book.

Sherman's introduction discusses the life and career of McKay, who was born in Jamaica and came to live in the U.S. A novelist and essayist as well, he died in Chicago in 1948.

Many of the poems are written in Jamaican dialect. These dialect pieces have an energetic color and musicality. Many poems also show McKay's command of standard literary English; he writes some particularly fine sonnets.

Overall, this is a rich, diverse, and technically adept collection. There are many pointedly political poems that condemn racism and economic injustice, as well as sensuous love poems. There are poems that invoke both the rural tropics and the urban north.

These poems show McKay to be a master of meter, rhyme, and other aspects of poetry; he uses considerable variety throughout the collection. His best pieces combine a burning passion with his impressive technical prowess. Consider "A Capitalist at Dinner," a cutting political sonnet with a devastating final couplet; or "Song of the New Soldier and Worker," another political piece that uses stunning imagery and masterful audio effects.

McKay uses words as both lethal weapons against the forces of injustice and as tender instruments of passionate love. He is a poet of tremendous talent, and this collection is a real treasure.

McKay's nation language
In Claude McKay's Selected Poems, one sees the transformation of this West Indian poet's life manifested in his varied styles. McKay was born in the Jamaican countryside to an elite class, educated and given every opportunity. Then, as a young man, he came to America and felt the sting of pervasive racism and the numbness of being labeled second-class. His work shows that at times he looks down with pity at his people, only to look up with scorn at his oppressors. This duality drives many of his poems, especially those in the book's first section: Songs of Jamaica.
In "Hard Times" McKay exhibits the range of his poetic voice by ventriloquizing a Jamaican peasant. The effective use of this device brings an undeniably intimate feel to the poem and is remarkably capable of relating the sorrow of the poor farmer depicted. The modification of Jamaican vernacular on the English language is also a portrayal of the West Indian's captivity and adaptation to a strange culture.
Not to be overlooked are poems from McKay's Harlem Shadows collection. "If We Must Die" reflect his anger at an oppressive white menace that threatens to devour his culture. Interestingly enough, Winston Churchill read the same poem to British troops during WWII in a defiant call to arms. This cross-cultural application surely reflects the broader themes of McKay's work buried in the bowels of racial conflict.
All together, McKay's nation language echoes through the entire collection and relates a stirring narrative of the struggle of a West Indian exile. Each poem uses language, whether the voice of an island peasant, or an American immigrant, to engage the reader in the poet's struggle; a compelling read.

Poetry
I enjoyed the selected poems of Claude Mckay. Although in the beginning the dialouge was hard to follow, it became easier as I imagined myself as the writer...Good poetry

A good survey of McKay's work....
I first read "If We Must Die" in a Literature class in college.Not knowing anything about Claude McKay, I saw this asan almost "athletic" speech from a coach to his team.It had that kind of a feel to it.In doing some research, I found that McKay was speaking of the injustice African Americans felt in America in the early 1900s.

This collection is not just the selections about racial injustice.There are also poems about his home in Jamaica, his job in the constabulary force there, and love.Through these diverse poems, you will get a better picture of McKay and his time.There is not a lot of biographical information listed in this book.

I would recommend the book.The first few poems are written in a Jamaican dialect which may make it difficult to read the first time.I found that reading it out loud opened the meaning and pronunciation for me.It is a good read. ... Read more

Product Description
Lincoln Agrippa Daily, known on the 1920s Marseilles waterfront as “Banjo,” prowls the rough waterfront bistros with his drifter friends, drinking, looking for women, playing music, fighting, loving, and talking - about their homes in Africa, the West Indies, or the american South and about being black.
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Customer Reviews (3)

An manifesto of Black dignity, a fun book to read
The years after World War One were a time for youth with adventure on their minds to follow what the war showed them and seek the world. This book brings to my mind another book of this heady time of excitement, Dos Passos great _1919_.However, this book goes far beyond the interesting and humorous adventures of its protagonists to sketch a vision of Pan African.

The characters are former sailors and dockworkers on the bum in Marseilles in the early 1920s, all Black from the United States, the West Indies, French and British Africa. Some are uneduated workers and former peasants, at least one is educated, living "the life of the people" on the beach. While careening through adventures involving very much sex, more alcohol, and encounters with whites from every level of European and American society, the book takes up the issues of race and racism, not only on the part of European and American whites, but the prejudices among and within the different Black nationalities themselves.

When the book was published young Africans, young West Indians, and Black Americans, but especially Francophone Blacks like Aime Caesaire and Leopold Senghor would would craft the Black cultural and political affirmations called Negritude, would champion this book as a call for Black unity, dignity, and for looking to the warmth, joy, and passion of the culture and people of Africa and her diaspora int he Americas.

The ordinary reader will enjoy this book because it is told with wit and grace and that it humor comes from the real world. After all, the protagonists live by their wits, not by their labor, and there are enough scraps with romance, hustlers, and the police to keep the plot moving.

I read it because its comments on culture and race are important to my own research, but once reading it, I found myself hungry for its pages every time I put it down, wanting to get through the current adventure and into the next.

Distorted Version of a Brilliant Text
Formed in 1992, the X Press intends "to become not only Europe's biggest, but the world's number one black book publisher." Judging by their 2000 edition of McKay's Banjo: A Story Without a Plot (1929), we will have much to fear if they succeed.

The X Press edition is rife with errors and silent emendations, beginning with omission of the book's crucial subtitle: "A Story Without a Plot." This edition also omits McKay's dedication ("For Ruthope"), along with the table of contents and the chapter titles. Worse still, the publishers frequently tamper with McKay's prose, changing punctuation, omitting clauses, and converting McKay's carefully constructed dialect passages into Standard English. Consider the book's second paragraph:

X Press:"It sure is," he noted mentally; "the most wonderful bank in the ocean I ever did see."
Original: "It sure is some moh mahvelous job," he noted mentally; "most wonderful bank in the ocean I evah did see."

X Press omits an entire phrase ("some moh mahvelous job"), blurring two separate thoughts into one and making McKay's semicolon seem ungrammatical. Banjo's vernacular "evah" becomes "ever," far from a minor point since the characters in Banjo frequently reflect on the nature of language and slang. The X Press edition does not eliminate all uses of dialect, but it does efface many. For example, there are eighteen silent emendations of dialect on page 252.

For those readers who wish to appreciate Banjo as McKay intended it, I highly recommend the Banjo (Harvest Book) Harcourt Brace edition (1957/1970), which replicates of the original Harper & Brothers 1929 edition down to the pagination. Far from being a definitive modern re-issue, the X Press edition misrepresents McKay's authorial vision, preventing readers from appreciating one of the great novels of the 20th century.

tranquility
I named this tranquility because I ordered "Banjo" by McKay I got it in a few days and it was in perfect condition. Therefore I didnt have to worry a second thankyou peppiep@centurytel.net ... Read more

Product Description
This classic novel gives voice to the alienation and frustration of urban blacks during an era when Harlem was in vogue.With sensual, often brutal accuracy, Claude McKay traces the parallel paths of two very different young men struggling to find their way through the suspicion and prejudice of American society.At the same time, this stark but moving story touches on the central themes of the Harlem Renaissance, including the urgent need for unity and identity among blacks.Amazon.com Review
An enlightening trip through Harlem--from its colorful street lifeand its incomparable jazz venues to its back rooms, where drinking,drugging, gambling, and women helped some take a load off. Jake Brown is alover of life and takes in all that Harlem has to offer like a long, cooldrink. Though he's subjected to the same oppression as those around him, hechooses to rise above it and delight in the blessings he does have. Ray, onthe other hand has been defeated one too many times, and despite, or perhapsbecause of, having a formal education, he is bent on revolt. First publishedin 1928, this was Claude McKay's first novel. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Harlem Renaissance
This book shows Harlem at in its truest form, exploring the boundaries of racial and class conflict in a unique multi-perspective way.

I Loved This Controversial Work of Art
Written in 1928, Claude McKay's novel, Home to Harlem was created as an answer to its white counterpart, Ni***r Harlem (not to offend, but it's the real title of the book), written by Carl Van Vechten. Both books feature the booze, drugs, sex and prostitution of the Roaring 20s, especially the clubs and cabarets (among other places) set in Harlem (and McKay includes Clinton Hill, Brooklyn).

In this book, Claude McKay attempts to show the underground and working class life of African Americans in Harlem during the 1920s. And he does so in a brutally honest manner. The novel centers around two black men, Jake, an ex-soldier and working stiff, and Ray, a college man turned working stiff from the Caribbean. Through these characters and other minor characters, McKay shows us life in Harlem for the working class and working rebels (aka criminals) during this time.

Condemned for its blatant focus on sex, drugs, alcohol (this was the Prohibition Era) and prostitution by the elite of Harlem's Renaissance (W.E.B. DuBois included), McKay and others like him was a rebel for this period. And thankfully so!

While the book contains language and literary tools and functions that would seem stilted and perhaps archaic, by today's standards, it is nonetheless a classic.

A word of warning, however: McKay's descriptions of persons of color rely heavily on what modern people would consider very, very color-struck. If you can overlook this, it is a wonderful examination of life in the underground decadent culture of Harlem's Jazz Age.

a classic; McKay is worth your time
After reading an issue of Black Issues Book Review, I decided to give this book a try.It is a great story and perfectly relays all the nuances and moods that are New York.The main character meets a prostitute namedFelice his first night in Harlem and his quest for her begins there.Trythis one out; you will enjoy

An important work of the Harlem Renaissance
In terms of plot and character development, this work is average- perhapseven below average.However, McKay does suceed in creating beautifulimagerary through his prose; especially in terms of the physicaldescriptions he provides of African Americans and the city of Harlem. Besides language, another reason to consider reading this work is becauseof its historical role in the Harlem Renaissance.The release of this bookcaused a great deal of controversy-much of which centered around themanner in which McKay portrayed African Americans.If you do decide toread this book, it is a quick and easy read.The typing and margins arepretty large and the chapters are relatively short. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

McKay's Complete Poems: A Historic Event
Most readers will probably be aware of McKay's 1919 poem "If We Must Die," accurately recognized in anthologies of African American literature as the first openly defiant black insurgent lyric during the racial violence of the post-Great War period.Edited and introduced by William Maxwell, author of New Negro, Old Left: African-American Writing and Communism between the Wars (1999), this new collection of more than three hundred of McKay's poems-including nearly a hundred published for the first time-provides an entirely new understanding of the diaspora-trotting author's verse, from his "dialect" poetry published in Jamaica during the early teens to McKay's somewhat misleadingly titled "Right Turn To Catholicism" writings during the mid-forties.

Most striking are "The Years Between," as Maxwell describes McKay's verse from the twenties to the mid-thirties.During this fifteen-year stretch, McKay's lyrics versify the historical intersections between the Harlem Renaissance, modernist period leftism, anticolonial transnationalist negritude, and bohemian queer (...) ardor.Critics have regularly portrayed McKay as the first black intellectual to recant his Communism-and his repudiation is supposed to have taken place during the early 1920s.One startling fact that Maxwell's impressive scholarship illustrates is McKay's lyrical dedication to the international proletariat and Soviet State throughout not only the twenties but even into the thirties.Readers should find it illuminating, moreover, that McKay's praises to Communism are tangled up with an emergent African liberation struggle poetry and the advent of a black same-(...) love lyricism.

What's more, this edition annotates McKay's fascinating, generally unknown poetry clusters: the verse chronicle of his hospitalization during the early twenties that he referred to as "The Clinic"; the thirties' paeans to the "Cities" he inhabited; and the Catholic-inspired poems of the forties he called "The Cycle."To say that Maxwell's one-hundred-and-ten pages of annotations is thorough does not begin to express how valuable this collection is to various reading communities, including readers of poetry by black diaspora authors, verse by writers of the Left, writings by progressive-minded Catholic authors, and poetry by (...)queer voices.The appearance of Claude McKay's Complete Poems is indeed a historic event. ... Read more

Product Description
Claude McKay remains one of the most influential intellectuals of the African Diaspora. Best remembered for his extraordinary poetry, his achievement in verse has been widely analyzed and praised. Yet in the welter of discussion about McKay, little has been said about his early writing in Jamaican. Two collections from the period, Songs of Jamaica and Constab Ballads, are more known about than known, and his poems for the Jamaican press, most of which have never been anthologized, are rarely studied. In A Fierce Hatred of Injustice, Winston James elegantly redresses this omission. Through a subtle and detailed consideration of McKay's formative years on the island, James reviews the themes and politics of poetry which McKay began writing at the age of ten. Above all he focuses on the poet's pioneering use of Jamaican creole revealing the way in which this laid a foundation for subsequent work by writers such as Louise Bennett, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Smith. The volume concludes with a comprehensive anthology of the early poems together with a comic sketch about Jamaican peasant life by McKay and an autobiographical essay on his experiences in the Kingston police force. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Brought black West Indian literature to bear on world scale
This book, while not a great work of literature, is notable for its ground breaking role in bringing black West-Indian writing to the attention of literati across the world.The plot is somewhat forced, with deus exmachina resolutions and an often painfully obvious didacticism throughout. McKay does lovingly detail early 1900's Jamaica, where he lived for thebulk of his young life, and the setting is vivid, if a bit heavy-handed. McKay was an adherent of Primitivsm insofar as he believed that blackpeople should work to maintain a grounding in their atavistic roots at thesame time that they absorb and learn from Western/Europeanized culture. "Banana Bottom" is his most successful attempt at integratingthis ideology into his prose.The story is about a young black Jamaicangirl named Bita who, sent to live with white missionaries at an early age,is commissioned to spend seven years at an English boarding school where itis expected that she will learn "proper" comportment and"civilized" modes of thinking.When Bita returns she has troubleintegrating herself into the black community of her hometown, BananaBottom, and ends up rejecting the Europeanization that was forced upon herin favor of asserting her independance with a return to her"roots." The West Indies have since produced better reads, butthis book is enjoyable, and should please anyone looking to find out whereMcKay, commonly (and somewhat fallaciously) considered a progenitor of theHarlem Rennaissance, held his true allegiances.It is a must for anyoneinterested in anglophone post-colonial literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

An alternative look at the world
IN-DEPENDENCE FROM BONDAGE by Lloyd D. McCarthy takes Jamaican Claude McKay, who immigrated to the United States and participated in the Harlem Renaissance, and Michael Manley, also a Jamaican and who was the Prime Minister there and gives an in-depth discussion of their views of the world, especially of the African Diaspora. One used art, the other used politics, both were interested in socialism to create a fair and balanced world as opposed to capitalism. McKay spent a great deal of time traveling and studying the effects of both systems. He saw that capitalism was the reason behind the slave trade and it also served to keep the African Diaspora down. Manley also came to that conclusion, although he modified his views to fit Jamaica when he ruled as Prime Minister. Both preferred non-violent action to change the system, but neither felt that violence was totally out of the picture if it was called for.

McCarthy gives a marvelous oversight of the world of capitalism as he views the Northern world versus the Southern World - the Southern World being the so-called Third World Nations. He shows how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund work to keep the South providing profits while reaping no benefits from globalization. An example he used was how the funds forced many Third World nations to privatize their utilities, such as water, causing much anguish for the people of those countries. The penalty for not doing so would be instant repayment of that country's debt. He also gives possible solutions to the problems faced by these countries that would not involve the North. He urges these countries to wake up and take charge.

IN-DEPENDENCE FROM BONDAGE is a must for anyone interested in world politics today. It is an easy read and gives a wealth of information - both from the past and in the present.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

Good Book!
I don't even know where to begin as it relates to this book. One word would be excellent thought. It provides a clear, concise, well researched, informative (not bias or persuasive) view on Micheal Manley and Claude McKay's ideologies. I think all 'yardies' should read this book. It all honesty it has instilled a foundation for a deep sense of national pride that I didn't really have before. The book also gives an interesting blue print of Third World development and how these great products of our nation (Jamaica) got to the views that they did. It also provides some insight on what the developing world is afraid of- third world cooperation. The short of it, is that I loved the book. I could not put it down once I started reading it.

IMF/WORLD BANK-- PREDATORY LENDERS'-- "DEBT RELIEF" IS A TROJAN HORSE!
"SURVIVAL. LIBERATION. STRUGGLE"! These are not merely fortuitous themes but the vital, mutual, connection in the theses on global capitalism and the crisis of imperialism found in the literary and political legacy of Claude McKay and Michael Manley.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* shows how the artist, McKay, and the politician, Manley, (both international political activists and writers) surveyed World-Development, over the last 500 years. They have observed how imperialist-globalization is still shutting down human liberty, producing backwardness and desperation for the majority of humanity worldwide,in the current epoch, especially in the African Diaspora.

The author demonstrates that both men were driven, like other great historical figures--true internationalists, and so moved (with their art and politics) upon the world-stage because they deeply cared about humanity, as we move in history.

As men, of the Americas, who have witnessed, participated in, and were closely acquainted with key historical figures and great events of the last century, they saw how imperialism and global capitalism have afflicted peoples in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The author shows that McKay and Manley warned the Lumpen-bourgeoisie of the African Diaspora how a handful of international financial capitalists (through international agencies) were ravaging poor countries, with debt. Thus *In-Dependence From Bondage* points out that the debt burden of the African Diaspora along with that of the Global South is rising, rapidly, and is one explanation for the decline in overall human development since the end of the Cold War.

Unwise borrowing and investments in wrong projects by the lumpen-bourgeois, "Gate Keepers," of the African Diaspora, acting with and for the big predatory lenders in the imperialist countries is one explanation for the current debt burden.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* argues that the historical evidence, since 1948, is readily available to show that the disaster that is called capitalism was not warmly welcomed by the mass of people in the African Diaspora. It was forcibly imposed in many countries through military interventions, political assassinations and destabilization carried out by the agents of Capitalism and imperialism, under the false pretense of fighting "communism" in the Third World.

McCarthy believes that some of the loans, which are now the source of the debt burden in poor countries, may well have been granted to the lumpen-bourgeoisie (including the lumpen-Black-bourgeois), as reward money for their capitulation to imperialist globalization, during and after the Cold War.

According to McCarthy, under such circumstances, morally the devastated ravaged-poor of the African Diaspora should now resist. They must not repay "reward' loans." Let the greedy-opportunists pay!His argument for the case is that, under the warped system of Western political democracy, it is unlikely that the people, who are now being asked to repay such cruel loans, knew anything about the conditions of the agreements or when their corrupt elites entered into negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

*In-Dependence From Bondage* makes the point that, the nationalist elites collaborated with US based international loan sharks, the IMF and World Bank in usurping the democratic rights of the people in the process of borrowing. Thus, they have helped to tighten the noose of capitalist exploitation and imperialism around the neck of the African Diaspora's economy.

McCarthy reiterates that, both the World Bank and the IMF, predatory lenders, are instruments of imperialism for the big financial capitalist of the North. Any promise of a "debt relief" is not trustworthy because it is a "gift horse" that must be examined closely.The "benevolent" bearer of "debt reliefs are the wolves of capitalism making sure that the political environment in the black Diaspora remains welcoming to further exploitation. p.154

Although the work is a non-fiction on the subject, capitalism/imperialism, McCarthy makes the book light, lively and entertaining by presenting and interpreting some of McKay's rare poetry and fictional writings.

In contrast, he also examines Manley's relations with the infamous Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, but STRANGELY, he suggested that Kissinger may have been more empathetic to Michael Manley and Jamaica during the 1970s than they ever realized. Other elements in the US administration, advocating for the international bauxite giants, instead, were Manley's main antagonists.

With this said, in the worldviews of McKay and Manley, the survival and liberation of humanity and the African Diaspora, from under the heel of imperialist-globalization demands "STRUGGLE... CONTINUOUS STRUGGLE!" says McCarthy.

This interesting, fast moving, easy to read book of only 192 pages, should be read by students, artist, politicians and general readers with an interest in history, politics, literature, and the fate of humanity!

See also:

Life And Debt

Well organized inter-descplinary alternative
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (2/07)

"In-Dependence from Bondage" is a compilation of the world views of the well known Poet, Claude McKay, and the world renowned Afro-Caribbean Socialist, Michel Manley. Both men, although of different generations, are known for their dedication to social change as it relates to the exploitation of the peoples of African descent in the Western hemisphere. Claude McKay's poetry was one of the great forces in bringing about what is often called the Negro Literary Renaissance.

Over a period of nearly four centuries approximately 4,000,000 Africans were transported to North America and the Caribbean Islands as the results of slave trading.Scattered, dispersed, and separated from their family and culture, these peoples persevered to maintain their traditions, religion, language, and folklore. Lloyd McCarthy, in this book, focuses primarily on the Jamaican perspective; however, it is relevant to the social, political, and economic conditions everywhere.I found the poetry of Claude McKay thought-provoking and enlightening on the African Diaspora and the plight of these exploited peoples.

McCarthy successfully illustrates the impetus, impact and corrective tactics currently being considered which are central to combating white racism, classicism, and Western imperialism.McCarthy gives the reader a definitive compilation of the writings of Claude McKay and Michael Manley.He has analyzed their works using references from dozens of authors and their interpretations of the ideological clash and policy gaps in African Diaspora relations. His research is well documented with complete and thorough endnotes.

McCarthy also is an Afro-Jamaican, and instills the influence of his personal history and heritage in his writing.He reveals his own empathy for the peasants and the working-class outlook, and the political perspectives that McKay and Manley expressed.

This work is a major contribution to the study of African Diaspora as it relates to globalization, policy planning, and international relations with developing and impoverished nations. McCarthy also presents valuable insight into how literature, biographical narrative, and intellectual history are interconnected with politics. The book is a wake up call to the peoples and nations of the African Diaspora to find collective solutions to survive globalization.

"In-Dependence from Bondage" holds promise of becoming the guidebook or blueprint for the liberation movement and should be read by our Washington politicians as well as all New World Africans.

Globalization: Friend or Foe?
I recently read somewhere that 2% of the worlds richest population owns over half of the world's wealth.An article on ABC news stated that ""Wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and high-income Asia-Pacific countries. People in these countries collectively hold almost 90 percent of total world wealth."Yet, globalization is one the rise and is further touted as a means to economic empowerment."In-Dependence from Bondage" looks at the unconstructive consequences that globalization brings to many in the African Diaspora and the world. This book illustrates how two Jamaican political figures prophetically viewed globalization's impact on developing nations during the 20th century and provides statistical analysis of how this global economic disparity has manifested itself in the quality of life of the peoples of developing nations.Mr. McCarthy defines globalization as the spread of American capitalism and provides extensive evidence as to how the throngs of capitalism (and its undercurrent of Elitism) affect impoverished nations for the benefit of a select few.Where there is a thesis, there must be an antithesis.This book represents a viable alternative view from which we all can learn. BRAVO!!! ... Read more

Product Description
Provides psychological insights into the Jamaican poet's life in the US and examines the problems that confronted most black intellectuals during the Harlem renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. This biography reveals much about the alienation of New York intellectuals and artists in general. ... Read more

Product Description
The gifted and rebellious writer Claude McKay grew up in the British West Indies and then moved to the United States. As he traveled from Jamaica to Harlem and then to Europe and Africa, he embraced various causes and political ideologies that made their way into his writings. Brought up as a colonial in the BritishWest Indies, he found racial oppression as an immigrant in the United States. His struggle for self-definition and self-determination was manifest in his writings and laid the foundation for the Harlem Renaissance and negritude movements. African American scholarship in the United States tends to focus on McKay’s American productions, such as his poetry and novels like Home to Harlem, while critics in the Caribbean focus on his works there: novels like Banana Bottom and dialect poetry. This study has undertaken to explore comprehensively the life and works of Claude McKay, framed within colonial and cross-cultural experiences. While dealing with pertinent issues like identity, race, exile, ethnicity, and sexuality, the work examines all the facets of this influential 20th century author, a man trying to solve the problem of his own identity in a world determined to marginalize him. ... Read more

Product Description
This study investigates the lives and writings of two of the most prominent African Caribbean immigrant authors in the United States, Claude McKay (1890-1948) and Paule Marshall (b. 1929). Although both writers traditionally have been studied within the realm of African American literature, their works are significantly shaped by their backgrounds as Caribbean immigrants. ... Read more

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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 asCharlie Chaplin, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Leon Trotsky, W. E. B. Du Bois, Isadora Duncan, Paul Robeson, and Sinclair Lewis.
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Written in the late 1940s but unpublished till now, this superb portrayal of Black life during the Great Depression and the New Deal is virtually a sequel to the classic Home to Harlem. Mckay's vivid, warm evocations of the omnipresent numbers racket, all-night jazz parties and the whole exuberant and cacophonous clash of social movements and ideologies - Black nationalism and industrial unionism as well as incipient Muslim and other heterodox religious formations - provide the context for a fast-paced narrative of love, work, play and revolt in Black America during one of the most stirring periods in US history. Astutely sensitive to the extraordinary vitality and diversity of Black culture, and drawing on the author's experiences in the IWW and the extreme Left of the socialist movement, Harlem Glory reveals Claude McKay at his very best. ... Read more