Saturday, May 30, 2009



The Life of Countee Cullen






Countee Cullen, a famed poet of the Harlem Renaissance is a somewhat mysterious figure. He was extremely secretive about his life, leaving scholars confused about the details of his early childhood and his upbringing. Scholars do know that he was born Countee Porter on March 3, 1903. However, where he was born has been a subject of dispute among many scholars. New York City, Baltimore and Louisville have all been listed as his place of birth. Cullen put Louisville as his place of birth on his college transcript but when he began achieving success for his literary work, he claimed New York City was his birthplace and continued to claim that for the rest of his life. However, his second wife and some of his closest friends said that he was born in Louisville.

It is believed that Cullen's parents abandoned him, leaving him to be raised by a woman who was possibly his paternal grandmother, Mrs. Porter. She raised him until she passed away when he was 15 years old. After her death, Cullen was unofficially adopted by Reverend Frederick and his family. Frederick Cullen was a pioneer black activist minister of Salem M.E. Church, one of the largest congregations in Harlem. The two became very close and Countee later changed his last name to Cullen to match his new family.

Cullen began writing in grade school but was not published until high school. He attended DeWitt Clinton High school in 1918 and was a very motivated student. He was a class officer, the editor of the school's newspaper, he was involved with the school's magazine, Magpie, a member of the debating society and wrote poetry. Cullen was first recognized for his poetry when he won a citywide competition for his poem, "I have a Rendezvous with Life." After graduating from high school, Cullen attended New York University on a scholarship. He was the poetry editor of the school magazine, The Arch. He also received several awards during college, such as the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize. While at NYU, Cullen dedicated himself to writing poetry. This is when he wrote the poetry for his first collection of poems, Color in 1925.

Cullen graduated from NYU Phi Beta Kappa and went on to pursue his master's degree in English and French from Harvard University. There, he worked as an assistant editor for Opportunity magazine as well as wrote poems for his collections: Copper Sun and Ballad of the Brown Girl. Cullen's work became famous during this time. He won more literary prizes than any other black writer in the 1920s.

After finishing his master's, Cullen traveled to France and Europe as part of the Guggenheim Fellowship. He was the second African American to win the fellowship. When he returned in April 1928, he married the daughter of W.E.B.Du Bois, Yolanda Du Bois. They had one of the biggest weddings in black New York history. They divorced two years later because according to Yolanda, Cullen told her that he was sexually attracted to men. He would remarry in 1940 to an old friend, Ida Mae Roberson. In 1929 Cullen published the The Black Christ and Other Poems. This work was heavily criticized and Cullen's career took a dramatic turn. His work just was not as acclaimed as it once had been.

He did write his only novel, One Way to Heaven in 1932. In 1934, Cullen began teaching English, French and creative writing at the Frederick Douglas Junior High School in New York City. In 1935, he translated Medea by Euripedes and also wrote plays. During this time, Cullen also contributed some to children's literature, writing The Lost Zoo and Christopher Cat.




In the last years of his life, Cullen wrote mainly for theatre. His one act play, The Third Fourth of July, ran for 113 performances on Broadway. He continued this type of work and was working on a musical with Arna Bontemps called St. Louis Woman, which was based on one of her novels when he passed away January 9, 1946 from a gastrointestinal disorder. Although some details of his life are still a mystery, it is no mystery that Cullen left a great legacy behind. His works are still famous today and his contribution to the Harlem Renaissance, one of the most inspirational movements in literature, is priceless.