Claude McKay (1890–1948) If We Must Die LINKS The Academy of American Poets - Poetry Exhibits: Claude McKay http://www.poets.org/lit/poet/cmckay.htm This site contains a brief biography of McKay, a selected bibliography, the texts of several of his poems, and a list of links. BIOGRAPHY Claude McKay (1890–1948) Born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica, McKay had already completed two volumes of poetry before coming to the United States in 1912 at the age of twenty-three (the two volumes earned him awards, which paid his way). The racism he encountered as a black immigrant brought a militant tone to his writing. His popular poem "If We Must Die" (1919) helped to initiate the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Between 1922 and 1934 he lived in Great Britain, Russia, Germany, France, Spain, and Morocco. His writings include four volumes of poems, many essays, an autobiography (A Long Way from Home [1937]), a novel (Home to Harlem [1928]), and a sociologial study of Harlem. His conversion to Roman Catholicism in the 1940s struck his audience as an ideological retreat. McKay wrote in a letter to a friend: "[T]o have a religion is very much like falling in love with a woman. You love her for her ... beauty, which cannot be defined."