Home to Harlem

Revisit the debut novel of one of the "New Negroes" of the Harlem Renaissance filled with Niggerati sensibilities.Disgruntled by the treatment of Black soldiers in the military, Jake Brown heads to Harlem-the Mecca of Black creativity-to rebuild his life anew. Upon arriving, he discovers that Harlem isn't exactly the paradise of racial uplift and unity that one might read about in books; but then again, it's a far cry from the volatile streets of London and the isolation faced abroad. Meeting new faces and taking up odd jobs, Jake sets out on a journey to discover who he is as a Black man in the world and where he can truly belong.Home to Harlem (1928) is the bestselling, award-winning novel of Jamaican-American poet, Claude McKay that explores the spirit of the uprooted Black vagabond within Harlem's legendary nightlife.

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Auteur

Claude McKay (1889-1948) was a Jamaican poet and novelist. Born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, McKay was raised in a strict Baptist family alongside seven siblings. Sent to live with his brother Theo, a journalist, at the age of nine, McKay excelled in school while reading poetry in his free time. In 1912, he published his debut collection Songs of Jamaica, the first poems written in Jamaican Patois to appear in print. That same year, he moved to the United States to attend the Tuskegee Institute, though he eventually transferred to Kansas State University. Upon his arrival in the South, he was shocked by the racism and segregation experienced by Black Americans, which-combined with his reading of W. E. B. Du Bois' work-inspired him to write political poems and to explore the principles of socialism. He moved to New York in 1914 without completing his degree, turning his efforts to publishing poems in The Seven Arts and later The Liberator, where he would serve as co-executive editor from 1919 to 1922. Over the next decade, he would devote himself to communism and black radicalism, joining the Industrial Workers of the World, opposing the efforts of Marcus Garvey and the NAACP, and travelling to Britain and Russia to meet with communists and write articles for various leftist publications. McKay, a bisexual man, was also a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, penning Harlem Shadows (1922), a successful collection of poems, and Home to Harlem (1928), an award-winning novel exploring Harlem's legendary nightlife.