Countee Cullen

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Countee Cullen, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1941

Countee Cullen (May 30, 1903–January 9, 1946) was an American poet, one of the finest of the Harlem Renaissance. His most famous poems are "Yet Do I Marvel" and "Incident", the latter of which describes a childhood trip to Baltimore. Countee Cullen differed from many other poets of the Harlem Renaissance because, educated in a primarily white community, he lacked the background to comment from personal experience on the lives of other blacks or use popular black themes in his writing.

Cullen was born in New York City on May 30, 1903, and adopted by Reverend and Mrs. Frederick Ashbury Cullen. The Reverend was minister at Salem Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem , and thus Cullen was raised a Methodist. He went to DeWitt Clinton High School in New York and started writing poetry at the age of 14. He went to New York University in 1922 and graduated in 1923 after publishing poetry in The Crisis, under W. E. B. Du Bois, and Opportunity, of the National Urban League. He also had poems in Harper's, Century Magazine, and Poetry. After graduating he published his first volume of verse, Color. He then went to Harvard University to complete a master's degree.

Cullen was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans.

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