mous 1953 publication, Selected Poems.ARNABON-
TEMPS, who was involved in the arrangements for
the evening, was struck by that fact that McKay’s
publishers “find out that some folks are STILLmad
at Claude, even though he is daid and gone!”
(Nichols, 305). In response to his friend’s observa-
tion, Langston Hughes offered a sincere appraisal of
the prolific and enterprising poet. “Either you or
somebody else will have to write something objec-
tive about the controversial poet. It could be a
book of widespread general interest if written quite
frankly and with feeling,” he told Bontemps.
“Claude moved among interesting people at an ex-
citing time. He wrote poignant and sometimes stir-
ring lines. He reacted violently. He had secret loves
and open battles. What better subject could a biog-
rapher want?” he asked. Claude McKay was one of
the most earnest and hardworking writers of the
Harlem Renaissance. A self-described “troubadour
wandering,” he dedicated himself to depicting life
and humanity in all of its complexity and color.
Bibliography
Bernard, Emily. Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of
Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten.New York:
Knopf, 2001.
Claude McKay Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University;
Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington;
Schomburg Library, New York City; Dillard Univer-
sity, New Orleans; Harvard University; and New
York Public Library.
Cooper, Wayne. Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the
Harlem Renaissance.New York: Schocken Books,
1987.
Giles, James R. Claude McKay.Boston: Twayne Publish-
ers, 1976.
Hathaway, Heather. Caribbean Waves: Relocating Claude
McKay and Paule Marshall.Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1999.
James, Winston. A Fierce Hatred of Injustice: Claude
McKay’s Jamaica and His Poetry of Rebellion.Lon-
don: Verso Press, 2000.
———. “New Light on Claude McKay: A Controversy,
a Document, and a Resolution.” Black Renaissance
2, no. 2 (31 July 1999): 98.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.
Maxwell, William J. Complete Poems: Claude McKay.Ur-
bana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
Nichols, Charles H., ed. Arna Bontemps–Langston Hughes
Letters, 1925–1967. New York: Paragon House,
1990.
Tillery, Tyrone. Claude McKay, Man and Symbol of the
Harlem Renaissance, 1889–1948.Amherst: Univer-
sity of Massachusetts Press, 1992.Medea and Some Poems, TheCountee Cullen
(1935)
The book by COUNTEECULLENthat included his
modern translation of Medea,the Greek drama by
Euripides. Cullen was the first African-American
writer to produce a substantial translation of the
classic and the first modern writer of color to pub-
lish a major translation of a classical text. Cullen
completed Medea,his last published collection of
poems, during his tenure as a French and English
teacher at the Frederick Douglass Junior High
School in New York City.
Cullen’s version of the often-translated Greek
drama included accessible prose versions of the
drama and poetical translations of the choruses.
The PULITZERPRIZE–winning composer Virgil Gar-
nett Thomson, who collaborated with Gertrude
Stein in the 1920s, set Cullen’s lyrical interpreta-
tions to music. The composer Daniel Pinkham up-
dated the musical score in 1967. In his modern
version, Cullen attributed Medea’s awful power to
render men blind to her beauty rather than to her
extreme unattractiveness. Cullen underscored
Medusa’s all-encompassing grief at being aban-
doned by her husband, Jason. One of the most
memorable scenes occurs when she murders her
children. Medea urges herself into a state of denial
and slips into a third-person address that signals her
deeply fractured, traumatized state: “Lock up your
heart against pity, Medea,” she urges, “let mercy
beat at the door, but do not hear. These are not my
children. I never kissed them, nor held them to my
heart. They were never dear to me. I never bore
them! Believe these lies, today, my heart. Tomorrow
you may break” (Cullen, 54). Cullen’s interpreta-
tion tapped into the schizophrenia of the original
Medea, who alternates between direct address to
her friends and pained self-exhortation. In the
original, for instance, Medea declares, “Away with
cowardice! Give not one thought to thy babes,Medea and Some Poems, The 343