poems from McKay for the magazine that he
hoped “would reach and discover the obscure tal-
ents of America who were perhaps discouraged,
engaged in uncongenial labor when they might be
doing creative work” (Cooper, 89). After an ex-
tremely positive and lengthy first meeting, McKay
contributed some five poems to the magazine.
McKay’s poetry earned him praise, and he was
included in major anthologies of the day. ALAIN
LOCKEhighlighted his work in the pioneering 1925
anthology NEWNEGRO.Two years later, Locke fea-
tured McKay in the highly selective 1927 volume
entitled FOURNEGROPOETS.McKay’s works ap-
peared alongside that of COUNTEE CULLEN,
LANGSTONHUGHES, and JEANTOOMER. McKay’s
first published American novel, HOME TOHARLEM
(1928), propelled him further into the literary spot-
light of the Harlem Renaissance. The work, which
appeared some two years after the controversial
and graphic novel NIGGERHEAVENby Carl Van
Vechten, often provoked comparisons between the
two. Langston Hughes regarded McKay’s work as
“Nigger Hell” and noted that popular opinion was
going against McKay’s depictions of contemporary
life in Harlem. “[T]he agreement seems to be,” he
wrote to his longtime friend and correspondent Van
Vechten, “that Claude has gone much lower-down
and betrayed the race to a much greater extent
than you ever thought of doing” (Bernard, 62). Ad-
ditional works followed in quick succession: BANJO:
A STORYWITHOUT APLOT(1929), a collection of
short stories entitled GINGERTOWN (1932), and
BANANABOTTOM(1933). His autobiography, A
LONGWAY FROMHOME,appeared in 1937 facili-
tated in part by McKay’s work with the Federal
Writers’ Project in 1936. The publication fueled his
long-standing frustration with Alain Locke, with
whom he had a fractious professional relationship.
McKay’s frustration dated back to the mistakes that
Locke made in the New Negro.McKay had chas-
tised Locke for failing to consult him on his own bi-
ography and for publishing incorrect details about
his life. McKay indulged in a biting critique of
Locke in his A Long Way from Home,his autobiog-
raphy, noting that the Harvard-educated professor
and editor suffered from an “academic and pedes-
trian conception of art,” which, “together with his
editorial arrogance, made him totally unfit to serve
as a spokesman for the black arts in America”
(Cooper, 320). In response, Locke published a
scathing review of McKay’s autobiography in which
he targeted the friendship that he had with Harris,
suggested that McKay was “the dark-skinned psy-
chological twin of that same Frank Harris, whom
he so cleverly portrays and caricatures,” and char-
acterized him as “the enfant terribleof the Negro
Renaissance” (Cooper, 320). He was not the only
one who regarded Locke as a problematic figure.
Zora Neale Hurston, in a lively 1938 letter to James
Weldon Johnson, declared, “Alain Locke is a mali-
cious spiteful litt[l]e snot that thinks he ought to be
the leading Negro because of his degrees” and that
“[f]oiled in that, he spends his time trying to cut
the ground from under everybody else” (Kaplan,
413).
McKay participated fully in the life of the
Harlem Renaissance. Like many of his peers, how-
ever, his frequent and lengthy travels provided him
with opportunities to write, forge new friendships,
and gather rich material for his works. He had few
close friendships with prominent writers, however.
According to McKay scholar James Giles, the
poet’s closest friend was JAMESWELDONJOHN-
SON, a fellow writer and the executive director of
the NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THEADVANCE-
MENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE. It was Johnson who
held a farewell party for McKay on the eve of his
departure for Russia. The guest list, which in-
cluded JESSIEFAUSET,WALTERWHITE,W. E. B.
DUBOIS, and CARLVANDOREN, certainly testified
to McKay’s standing. Biographer Wayne Cooper
notes that McKay also enjoyed a steady and sup-
portive friendship with ARTHURSCHOMBURG, the
bibliophile whose impressive collection of books
and artifacts was transformed into the Schomburg
Collection at the 135th Street Branch of the NEW
YORKPUBLIC LIBRARY. As the Harlem Renais-
sance drew to a close, McKay continued to write.
His history and sociological narrative, Harlem:
Negro Metropolis,appeared in 1940, the same year
in which he became a U.S. citizen.
During the last years of his life, McKay lived in
CHICAGO, where he converted to Catholicism. He
died there and was buried in New York City. His
former colleagues continued to discuss his work
after his death, and his accomplishments were cele-
brated on occasions such as the one organized at
the Schomburg Library to celebrate the posthu-342 McKay, Claude