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Claudius Mckay, better known as Claude McKay, was born Festus Claudius Mckay. He was a Jamaican poet, novelist and journalist. He later moved to the U.S. where he became best associated with the Harlem Rennsaisance.

Mckay was born in 1890 in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica. He was the son of farmers, Thomas Francis McKay and Hannah Ann Elizabeth Edwards, and he was the youngest of 11 children. At the age of 7, McKay was sent to live with his oldest brother, a school teacher, to be given the best education available. While living with his oldest brother, Uriah Theodore, McKay became an avid reader and started writing poetry at the age of 10. While under his brother's teachings, McKay studied classical and British literary figures and philosophers as well as science and theology.

In 1906, Mckay became an apprentice to a carriage and cabinet maker known as "Old Brenga." He stayed in ihs apprenticeship for about 2 years. During that time, in 1907, McKay met a man named Walter Jekyll who became a mentor and an inspiration for him. He encouraged McKay to concentrate on his writing. Jekyll convinced McKay to write in his native dialect and even later set some of McKay's verses to music.

By 1912, McKay had written two volumes of poetry: Songs of Jamaica, a collection of 50 poems, and Constab Ballads, a collection of 28 poems. During this time, McKay also had poems published in two of Jamaica's major newspapers,the Daily Gleaner and the Jamaica Times. In 1912, McKay also immigtrated to the United States to attend Tuskegee College to study agriculture. It was here that McKay encountered the harsh realties of American racism, which formed the basis for his later writing. Mckay moved from south Carolina to attend Kansas State College in Manhattan,Kansas. He moved to New York City in 1914 with financial support from his early mentor, Jekyll.

McKay's most famous works include Home to Harlem (1928), Banjo, 1929, Bannana Bottom, 1933, A Long Way from Home, 1937 and Harlem:Negro Metropolis,1940.

Mckay suffered from high blood pressure and heart disease,which lead to a steady decline in his physical health. He eventually died from congestive heart failure in Chicago. He died in 1948. In 1953, his work, Selected Poemsand his second autobiography, My Green Hills of Jamaica (1979) were both published posthumously.

Sources:

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 9: Claude McKay " PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/mckay.html

http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01105.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Date: Wed Mar 21 11:26:06 2001 Copyright (c) 2000 American Council of Learned Societies. Published by Oxford University Press.