Claude McKay literary property records

1931-2013

Claude McKay (1890-1948) was a Jamaican-born writer and poet who was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He is the author of the poetry collections Songs of Jamaica (1912), Constab Ballads (1912), Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922); the novels Home to Harlem (1928), Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933); the short story collection Gingertown (1932); the autobiography A Long Way from Home (1937); and the book of essays Harlem: Negro Metropolis (1940). A number of his works have been published posthumously, including the autobiography My Green Hills of Jamaica (1979), the novella Harlem Glory (1990), and the novels Amiable With Big Teeth (2017) and Romance in Marseille (2020).

Carl Cowl (1900-1997) was a left-wing political activist who first became acquainted with McKay in the 1920s, when McKay was an editor at the socialist magazine The Liberator. During the 1940s, Cowl began working as McKay's literary agent, in partnership with Claire Leonard (1903-1992), an agent who specialized in emerging playwrights. Upon McKay's death in 1948, Cowl and Leonard were appointed literary representatives of McKay's estate by his daughter, Hope McKay Virtue; in this capacity, Cowl oversaw the publication of My Green Hills of Jamaica and Harlem Glory, as well as reprints of other titles. Following Virtue's death in 1992, Cowl successfully petitioned the Los Angeles probate court managing her estate for the right to continue acting as McKay's literary representative, which he did until his death in 1997. This right was then transferred to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which began overseeing permissions requests and royalty disbursements in 2002. In 2013, the Faith Childs Literary Agency took over management of McKay's literary estate.