New York University Archives Collection on Countee Cullen

American poet Countee Porter was born on May 30, 1903 in Baltimore, Maryland. An orphan at an early age, he was adopted by Reverend Frederick Cullen, pastor of New York's Salem Methodist Church. At this time he assumed the name Countee Cullen.

Cullen attended DeWitt Clinton High School (1918-1921). During high school he edited the school's newspaper and the literary magazine, Magpie, and began to write poetry. His poetry achieved notice and Cullen won his first contest, a citywide competition, with the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Life," a poem inspired by Alan Seeger's "I Have a Rendezvous with Death."

Following high school, Cullen attended New York University at University Heights. At New York University, Cullen wrote the poems"Color" (1925), "Copper Sun" (1927), and The Ballad of the Brown Girl (1927).

In 1926 he earned his M.A. at Harvard in English and French. A year later he finished "The Ballad of the Brown Girl" and "Copper Sun." Cullen was soon the most popular Black poet and major Black literary figure in America during the Harlem Renaissance. In the 1920s, Cullen won major literary prices including the first prize in the Witter Bynner Poetry contest (1925), Harmon Foundation's first gold medal for literature (1927), Poetry magazine's John Reed Memorial Prize, the Amy Spingarn Award of the Crisis magazine, second prize in Opportunity magazine's first poetry contest, and second prize in the poetry contest of Palms. He was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. During his two-year Guggenheim Fellowship in France, he completed "The Black Christ" (1929).

Cullen was also in the center of major social events of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1928, Cullen married Yolande Du Bois, only child of W E. B. Du Bois. Their ill fated marriage ended two years later. Following his Guggenheim Fellowship, Cullen began to write less and began a teaching career in the public school system. However, he wrote significant work. His novel "One Way to Heaven" (1934), is one of the most important fictional retrospectives of the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen's "The Medea" was also a first major translation of a classical work by a twentieth-century black American writer. He also contributed to children's literature, "The Lost Zoo" and "Christopher Cat," are considered among the most clever and engaging books of children's verse.

Cullen continued to write up to his death from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning on January 9, 1946.