{"product_id":"letters-in-exile-claude-mckay-9780300276473","title":"Letters in Exile: Transnational Journeys of a Harlem Renaissance Writer","description":"\u003cb\u003eA collection of private correspondence from one of the Harlem Renaissance's brightest and most radical voices\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The Jamaican-born, queer author Claude McKay (1890-1948) was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His 1919 poem \"If We Must Die\" expressed a revolutionary vision for militant Black protest art, while his novels, including \u003ci\u003eHome to Harlem\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBanjo\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBanana Bottom\u003c\/i\u003e, described ordinary Black life in lyrical prose. Yet for all that McKay connected himself to Harlem, he was a restless world traveler who sought spiritual, artistic, and political sustenance in France, Spain, Moscow, and Morocco. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Brooks E. Hefner and Gary Edward Holcomb bring together two decades of McKay's never-before-published correspondence from the road with correspondents including W. E. B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, Max Eastman, and Louise Bryant. With wit, wisdom, insight, and sometimes irascible temper, McKay describes how he endured harassment from British authorities in London and worked alongside Leon Trotsky and Alexander Kerensky in Bolshevik Moscow. He reflects on Paris's Lost Generation, immerses himself in the Marseille dockers' noir subculture, and observes French colonialism in Morocco. Providing a new perspective on a unique figure of American modernism, this collection reveals McKay gossiping, cajoling, and confiding as he engages in spirited debates and challenges the political and artistic questions of the day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Claude McKay\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0300276478\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780300276473\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/02\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 512\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Claude McKay","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46795550130431,"sku":"9780300276473","price":38.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_85fb96a1-befd-4d40-b6d2-3e09d34ba2ea.jpg?v=1744947948","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/letters-in-exile-claude-mckay-9780300276473","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}