Guest Author - Jordan McCollum
Countee Cullen was born Countee LeRoy Porter in 1903, but sources disagree upon where he was born. The most likely candidates were Louisville and Baltimore. Abandoned by his birth mother, Cullen was raised by his grandmother until her death in 1918. He was then adopted (perhaps unofficially) by the Reverend and Mrs. Frederick Ashbury Cullen.
From a young age, Cullen’s poetic talent was evident. At fourteen, he began composing poetry and winning poetry contest. After graduating from DeWitt Clinton High School, Cullen enrolled in New York University. There, he continued to win poetry contests, including the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize.
During his undergraduate career, Cullen published his poetry in many formats. His works appeared in The Crisis, the NAACP’s official magazine directed by W.E.B. DuBois, and the National Urban League’s Opportunity magazine, as well as “Harper’s,” “Century Magazine” and “Poetry.”
Additionally, as an undergraduate he wrote many of the poems for his first three volumes of poetry. In 1925, the year he earned his Bachelor’s from NYU, Cullen published his first volume of poetry, Color.
Color was very well received, especially within the black community. During the build up to the Harlem Renaissance, Cullen was one of the most important figures in the movement. Color explored many themes related to race.
Cullen went on to Harvard for his Master’s degree. During his studies, he published two more volumes of poetry: Copper Sun and Ballad of the Brown Girl, both in 1927. (Ballad shared its name with one of the poems in the collection which had already won several prizes.) Copper Sun, however, was not as well received as his first volume of poetry, largely because the black community was disappointed in its lack or race-related themes. Although Cullen did not want to be classified as “only” a black poet, his first work had established him in that vein and many of his fans were unhappy with his departure.
In 1928, Countee Cullen married Nina Yolande DuBois, daughter of W.E.B. DuBois. The wedding was sometimes interpreted as the merger between the energy of the new black movement (Nina) and the intellectual side of the Harlem Renaissance (Countee). However, the two separated within months when Cullen was named a Guggenheim Fellow and left for Europe. Two years later, their divorce was finalized.
After his last volumes of poetry had been received with increasing criticism, Cullen began to write less and less. In the 1930s and 1940s, he began exploring prose and published three books within that genre: One Way to Heaven, The Lost Zoo and My Lives and How I Lost Them. In 1940, he married Ida Mae Roberson.
In 1945, Cullen completed a play, St. Louis Woman, but he died before the play was published the following year. On January 9, 1946, Cullen died unexpectedly. For some time after his death, Cullen was hailed as the most celebrated African American writer. However, his fame was soon eclipsed by that of Langston Hughes, now the best known of the Harlem Renaissance poets.
Sources: Poets.org, Wikipedia.org
Read Countee Cullen’s most acclaimed work, Color.
Interested in more Harlem Renaissance poetry? Countee Cullen assembled some of the best, including his own, in Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Black Poets in the Twenties
