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Cullen, Countée
4 articles on Cullen, Countée
Cullen, Countée
Source: Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century
Word Count: 2523 Includes: Bibliography(b. 30 May 1903; d. 9 January 1946), poet, scholar, teacher, editor, playwright, and novelist. Cullen was born Countée Leroy Porter most likely in Louisville, Kentucky. Exactly where he was born remains a mystery since there is no extant birth certificate and Cullen himself claimed two cities as his birthplace at different points in his life. On his application to New York University, he wrote that he was born in Louisville. Cullen's second wife, Ida Mae Roberson, and his friends Langston Hughes and Harold Jackmaneach said that Cullen also told them he was born there. After Cullen gained a reputation as one of the most respected writers of the Harlem Renaissance, however, he claimed on several occasions that he was born in New York City. Another mystery surrounding Cullen's early years is his relationship with ...
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Source: Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition
Word Count: 1272 Includes: Bibliography1903–1946
African American poet, novelist, and playwright; the best-known black writer during the Harlem Renaissance.Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:
In these last two lines of his poem “Yet Do I Marvel,” Countee Cullen sums up the irony that he saw not only for himself but for all African American writers: the question of what happens when God makes a poet black, in a world that discourages black creativity, yet still bids him sing. Cullen was part of the generation of authors who emerged during the Harlem Renaissance and answered that question with their own writing.Cullen's early history remained a mystery for decades, by his own choice. He was adopted as a teenager, and from that point on was always reticent about his birthplace and former family. But recent scholarship has indicated ...
To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
Read full articleCullen, Countée
Source: African American National Biography
Word Count: 2284 Includes: Further Reading | Obituaries:(30 May 1903?–9 Jan. 1946), poet and playwright, was the son of Elizabeth Thomas Lucas. The name of his father is not known. The place of his birth has been variously cited as Louisville, Kentucky, New York City, and Baltimore, Maryland. Although in later years Cullen claimed to have been born in New York City, it probably was Louisville, which he consistently named as his birthplace in his youth and which he wrote on his registration form for New York University. His mother died in Louisville in 1940.In 1916 Cullen was enrolled in Public School Number 27 in the Bronx, New York, under the name of Countee L. Porter, with no accent on the first “e.” At that time he was living with Amanda Porter, who generally is assumed to have been his grandmother. Shortly after she died in October 1917,Reverend ...
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Source: The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Word Count: 1805(1903–1946), poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, children's writer, and playwright. Countee Cullen is something of a mysterious figure. He was born 30 March 1903, but it has been difficult for scholars to place exactly where he was born, with whom he spent the very earliest years of his childhood, and where he spent them. New York City and Baltimore have been given as birthplaces. Cullen himself, on his college transcript at New York University, lists Louisville, Kentucky, as his place of birth. A few years later, when he had achieved considerable literary fame during the era known as the New Negro or Harlem Renaissance, he was to assert that his birthplace was New York City, which he continued to claim for the rest of his life. Cullen's second wife, Ida, and some of his closestLangston ...
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