Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

  1 The Jamaican Family Background

  2 The Jamaican Poetry as Autobiography: Claude McKay in 1912

  3 The Early American Years, 1912–1919

  4 McKay in England, 1919–1921

  5 With the Liberator, 1921–1922

  6 The Journey to Russia, 1922–1923

  7 The Expatriate Years, 1923–1925: “Color Scheme”

  8 The Expatriate Years, 1925–1929:Home to Harlem and Banjo

  9 The Expatriate Years, 1929–1934:Gingertown and Banana Bottom

10 The Search for Self-Definition, 1934–1937: A Long Way from Home

11 Looking Forward: The Search for Community, 1937–1940

12 Right Turn to Catholicism, 1940–1948

Abbreviations

Notes

Essay on Sources

Index

Illustrations

Claude McKay in 1920

Claude McKay and Max Eastman

Carl Cowl

Arthur A. Schomburg

Countee Cullen

Eulalie Imelda Lewars McKay

U’Theo McKay

Hope McKay Virtue

McKay country, Clarendon Parish