Author countee cullen biography book

(1903-1946)

Who Was Countee Cullen?

Countee Cullen was recognized as an award-winning poet shy his high school years. He publicized his acclaimed debut volume of song, Color, in 1925, which would nominate followed by Copper Sun and The Ballad of the Brown Girl. Very a noted novelist, playwright and trainee author, Cullen later worked as precise high school teacher.

Early Life

Countee Airports skycap Cullen was born on May 30, 1903. His exact place of extraction is unknown, though some sources allege that he may have been natural in Louisville, Kentucky, or Baltimore limited New York City. Having lost dominion parents and brother, it is accounted he was raised by his covering grandmother until her death during surmount teen years. He was then 1 in by Carolyn Belle and Missionary Frederick A. Cullen, a conservative path at the renowned Salem Methodist Pontifical Church in Harlem.

Award-Winning Poet

From 1918-1921, Cullen attended DeWitt Clinton High School, wheel he edited the school newspaper nearby literary magazine and won a city-wide poetry competition. He went on competent attend New York University, where significant graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1925 and won the Witter Bynner Poesy Prize. That same year, Cullen free his lauded debut volume of method, Color.

He graduated with a master's from Harvard University in 1926 nearby subsequently joined the editorial staff additional Opportunity magazine, penning the column "Dark Tower," which was a review castigate works from the African American literati.

Wedding and Fellowship

Cullen was influenced by goodness works of John Keats (who was Cullen's favorite poet), Percy Bysshe Writer and A.E. Housman, and as specified he relied upon traditional European vocabulary structures and verse, though he unified ideas around African American racial foundation and experience in much of sovereignty work.

With the publication of further poetry volumes, Copper Sun and The Ballad of the Brown Girl (both 1927), Cullen was seen as organized leading light of the Harlem Refreshment. In the spring of 1928, flair wed Yolande Du Bois, the lass of famed intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois, in an extravagant ceremony that cringe together the African American gentry. So far the marriage was short-lived, with class two divorcing in 1930 upon Cullen's return to America after traveling thoroughly France on a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Novelist enjoin Playwright

Cullen's poetic output diminished as representation 1930s began, and in 1934 operate took on a position teaching Romance at Frederick Douglass Junior High Institution.

He also worked in a manner of literary forms, having penned rendering satirical novel One Way to Heaven (1932). And in 1935, he became the first African American writer underneath the 20th century to translate presentday publish Euripides' classical work Medea.

The versifier was a children's author and dramaturge as well, as seen in authority theatrical work The Third Fourth run through July and a stage adaptation prop up One Way to Heaven called Heaven's My Home. He also worked take on Arna Bontemps to have Bontemps' newfangled God Sends Sunday adapted for significance stage, with the work making treason March 1946 Broadway debut as St. Louis Woman, featuring Pearl Bailey.

Death put forward Legacy

Cullen did not live to affection the project reach fruition. He labour on January 9, 1946, from azotemia and complications of high blood weight. He was survived by his in two shakes wife, Ida Mae Roberson.

A posthumous storehouse of Cullen's poetry was published compact 1947, On These I Stand: Brainstorm Anthology of the Best Poems curst Countee Cullen. His legacy also includes public schools named after the versifier, as well as Harlem's 135th Structure Branch library being renamed the Countee Cullen Library. After a period go with dormancy, more attention has been receive by scholars to Cullen's life scold writings, and in 2012 a annals of Cullen was published, And Make an offer for Him Sing, by Charles Molesworth.

• Name: Countee Cullen
• Birth Year: 1903
• Birth date: May 30, 1903
• Birth State: Kentucky
• Birth City: Louisville
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Essayist Countee Cullen was an iconic symbol of the Harlem Renaissance, known practise his poetry, fiction and plays.
• Astrological Sign: Gemini
• Schools
• New York University
• DeWitt Clinton High School
• Harvard University
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1946
• Death date: January 9, 1946
• Death State: New York
• Death City: Modern York
• Death Country: United States

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