Winston James - Claude McKay: The Making of a Black Bolshevik

Claude McKay

Claude McKay

The Making of a Black Bolshevik

Winston James

Columbia University Press / New York

Columbia University Press

Publishers Since 1893

New YorkChichester, West Sussex

cup.columbia.edu

Copyright 2022 Winston James

All rights reserved

EISBN 978-0-231-50977-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: James, Winston, author.

Title: Claude McKay: the making of a Black Bolshevik / Winston James.

Description: New York: Columbia University Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021044661 | ISBN 9780231135924 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780231135931 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780231509770 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: McKay, Claude, 18901948. | McKay, Claude, 18901948Political
and social views. | African American authorsBiography. | Authors,
Jamaican20th centuryBiography. | Jamaican AmericansIntellectual life. |
SocialismUnited StatesHistory20th century. |
Black nationalismUnited StatesHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC PS3525.A24785 Z743 2022 |
DDC 811/.52 [B]dc23/eng/20211216

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021044661

A Columbia University Press E-book.

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Cover image: Private Collection Prismatic Pictures / Bridgeman Images

Cover design: Lisa Hamm

In loving memory
of
Mary Turner, Hayes Turner, and William Brown
and
the heralds of a new day yet to be born
John Coltrane
and
Nina Simone

Contents

One of the distinct pleasures of finishing a book such as this is the opportunity it affords to publicly thank those whove helped along the way. I have accumulated many debts which cannot be repaid but ought to be publicly acknowledged.

I am grateful for the courteous assistance that I received from librarians and archivists especially in the United States, Britain, and Jamaica. I wish to thank those at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University; the British Library, especially its newspaper division when at Colindale; Columbia University libraries, especially the Interlibrary Loan Office; the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; the Lilly Library, Manuscripts Department, Indiana University, Bloomington; the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam; the Labour History Archives and Study Centre, Peoples History Museum, Manchester, UK; the William Ready Divisions of Archives and Research Collections, Mills Memorial Library, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the National Archive (previously the Public Record Office), Kew, Surrey; the National Archives, Washington, DC; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Rare Books and Manuscript Collection, New York Public Library, New York City; the Albert H. Small Collections Library, University of Virginia; the West India Reference Library, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica; the National Library of Jamaica. Richard Smith efficiently and successfully chased down some of the items I was not able to ken myself in London. Cecil Gutzmore provided similar help in Kingston. I thank them both.