Cullen, Countee (redirected from Countee Porter)

Cullen, Countee (koun`tē`), 1903–46, American poet, b. New York City, grad. New York Univ. 1925, M.A. Harvard, 1926. A major writer of the Harlem Renaissance—a flowering of black artistic and literary talent in the 1920s—Cullen wrote poetry inspired by American black life. His technique was conventional, modeled on that of John Keats, and his mood passed from racial pride and optimism in the 1920s to sadness and disappointment in the 1930s. Among his volumes of verse are Color (1925), Copper Sun (1927), The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927), and On These I Stand (1947).

Bibliography

See biography by A. R. Chucard (1984); bibliography by M. Penny (1971).

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Cullen, Countee

 orig. Countee Porter

(born May 30, 1903, Louisville, Ky.?, U.S.—died Jan. 9, 1946, New York, N.Y.) U.S. poet of the Harlem Renaissance. Reared in New York City, he was unofficially adopted at age 15 by a minister. He won a citywide poetry contest and later attended New York and Harvard universities, winning academic honours. His first collection of poems, Color (1925), received critical acclaim while he was still in college. Copper Sun (1927) was criticized in the black community for not giving enough attention to the issue of race. He taught in the city's public schools from 1934 until his death.