Arna Bontemps at Fisk University and decided to
donate her late husband’s papers to the school.
Bontemps, who was chief archivist at the time,
noted that “Countee’s literary effects” would be-
come part of the “collection of Negroana: letters,
manuscripts, the books of his library, everything
that was still with him at his death.” Although, ac-
cording to Bontemps, Cullen had “given much
away previously... much remained” and would be
housed, “beside the forthcoming [Charles] Ches-
nutt collection” (Nichols, 282).
Cullen’s first volume of poetry appeared in
- Color,published by HARPER&BROTHERS,
was heralded as the work of a new star, a young
man whose work embodied the aspirations of the
TALENTEDTENTHand represented the unlimited
potential of African Americans. Included in this
volume was “Yet Do I Marvel,” one of his most
well-known pieces, about the irony of being born
black and a poet. He used his Guggenheim and
Harmon Foundation awards to fund a year in
France. Two years later, in 1927, he published two
works: COPPERSUN,a volume whose painful love
poetry is believed to have been inspired by the
breakdown of his marriage, and THEBALLAD OF
THEBROWNGIRL,an ornate and highly decorative
monograph version of a previously published
poem. He also edited CAROLINGDUSK:ANAN-
THOLOGY OFVERSEBYNEGROPOETS,a volume in
which he asserted his belief in the importance of
creative versatility for black writers and decried
any notion that they have a responsibility to write
race literature. Cullen’s protestations, however, in
no way minimized the force of his most race-con-
scious poems, works in which he challenged race
prejudice, racism, and inequality.
In 1929, he produced THE BLACK CHRIST
ANDOTHERPOEMS,a volume that included a long
narrative poem about the powerful resurrection of
a LYNCHINGvictim and the solace he offered to his
mourning, traumatized family. Cullen scholars note
that the poet’s productivity diminished steadily
after the publication of The Black Christbut that
he did continue to pursue creative projects. Cullen
published ONEWAY TOHEAVEN(1932), his first
and only novel with Harper, the press with which
he worked exclusively throughout his career. In the
New York Times,reviewer Elizabeth Brown noted
that many white readers had “not yet reached the
stage where we can appreciate any story about col-
ored people at its face value without always strain-
ing to find it some sort of presentation of Negro
life” and that it was thus “an impertinence to say
that Mr. Cullen paints a convincing picture of life
in Harlem; but one can at least say that the picture
is sometimes amusing, sometimes very moving, and
at all times interesting” (NYT,28 February 1932,
BR7). Ultimately, the novel was not a major criti-
cal success and was hampered by its two competing
and seemingly unrelated plot lines. The first re-
volved around a tragic love affair between an
earnest domestic named Mattie Johnson and an
unreliable con man named Sam Lucas. The novel,
set in Harlem, also allowed Cullen to portray the
lively social and intellectual circles of the commu-
nity and of the time. The character Constancia
Brandon, for instance, was seen as a thinly veiled
version of A’Lelia Walker. Cullen attempted to
transform the novel into a play, but the stage ver-
sion of the work did not become a significant pub-
lic endeavor.
W. E. B. DuBois, believed that Cullen was a
writer whose “career was not finished” and “did not
culminate.” Writing in the Chicago Defenderin Jan-
uary 1946, DuBois noted movingly that Cullen’s ca-
reer “was halted in mid-flight and becomes at once
inspiration and warning to the American Negro
group” (Lomax, 246). Cullen scholar Alan Lomax
suggests that Cullen in fact “refus[ed] to accept
race as a basic and valuable segment of his total
identity” and that this “was an evasion which pre-
vented him from further straightforward and clear
development” (Lomax, 246). Cullen’s career, like
that of JEANTOOMER, was undoubtedly informed
by the writer’s interest in incorporating race into
his works but reflected the writer’s determination
to prevent it from becoming the overarching theme
in all of his work.
In 1934, Cullen began an 11-year career as a
teacher of English and French at Frederick Dou-
glass Junior High School in New York City. There,
one of his students was James Baldwin, the future
acclaimed novelist and essayist. It was Cullen who
encouraged Baldwin’s love of literature and served
as the adviser to the high school literary club to
which Baldwin belonged. Cullen continued to pub-
lish during his tenure at the school. In 1935, he
produced THEMEDEA ANDSOMEPOEMS.In theCullen, Countee Porter 107