Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen , 1903-46, American poet, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. 1925, M.A. Harvard, 1926. A major writer of the Harlem Renaissance—a flowering of black artistic and literary talent in the 1920s—Cullen wrote poetry inspired by American black life. His technique was conventional, modeled on that of John Keats, and his mood passed from racial pride and optimism in the 1920s to sadness and disappointment in the 1930s. Among his volumes of verse are Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927), and On These I Stand (1947).

Bibliography: See biography by A. R. Chucard (1984); bibliography by M. Penny (1971).

Cullen, Countee (1903–46), black author, a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, was educated at New York University (A.B., 1925) and Harvard (M.A., 1926). While he was only in his twenties, his poetry won prizes in journals and was collected in Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927), and The Black Christ (1929). As the titles indicate, the themes were racial, but he was also criticized for being unduly influenced by the romanticism of Keats and for failing to use black rhythms and idioms. A later collection, The Medea and Some Poems (1935), opens with a translation of Euripides' tragedy. His other works include One Way to Heaven (1932), a novel about Harlem life; Caroling Dusk (1927), an anthology of verse by black writers; an adaptation of Arna Bontemps's novel God Sends Sunday as a musical play, St. Louis Woman (1946); and two books for children.