Countée Cullen, Voice of the Harlem Renaissance

Poet, anthologist, novelist, translator, children's writer, and playwright, Countée Cullen wore many different hats. More than any other black writer of his generation, he was praised as a major crossover literary figure. While he was not the first black man to write “white” verse—ballads, quatrains, and such (Phyllis Wheatley and Paul Lawrence Dunbar came before him), he was the one who was most celebrated while doing so. If any one event started the Harlem Renaissance, it was when Countée Cullen emerged as a successful writer at a young age.
He was born Countée Leroy Porter on May 30, 1903. Where he was born remains a mystery—some said that he was born in Louisville, KY; others reported that he was born in New York City; still others placed him in Baltimore, MD. He was raised by his grandmother until she died when he was 15, then unofficially adopted by the Reverend and Mrs. Frederick A. Cullen of Harlem, NY. While still in high school, he won a poetry contest, wa...