50books_poc | 2.7 Countee Cullen, Color (1925)

Countee Cullen, Color (1925)

Cullen was a leading light of the Harlem Renaissance (and, cough, the only author from that period I have read).* I enjoyed his work - he is clearly a fairly traditional writer. His poetry rhymes, follows classical traditions and references classical and Biblical mythology. He was writing three years after *The Wasteland* came out, but might as well have been writing in the nineteenth century.

Cullen himself said: ‘I should be the last person to vote for any infringement of the author’s right to tell a story, to delineate a character, or to transcribe an emotion in his own way, and in the light of truth as he sees it... I do believe, however, that the Negro has not yet built up a large enough body of sound, healthy literature to permit him to speculate in abortions and aberrations which other people are too prone to accept as legitimate...’

* Not my Renaissance! The Renaissance for Aboriginal literature was probably... um, is probably now.