Countee Cullen is an african american poet born on May 30,1903 in Louiseville, Kentucky. Contee Cullen married Yolande Du Bois daughter of W.E.B Du Bois in 1928 later divorcing. Countee Cullen passed away on January 9, 1946. He is known as one of the finest poets during the Harlem Renaissance. At the age of 15 Countee Cullen was unoffically adopted by Reverend F.A. Cullen, minister of Salem M.E. Church. Which was one of Harlem's largest congregations.
Countee Cullen first became known when he won a citywide poetry contest as a schoolboy. His winning stanzas were widely reprinted. He attended New York University and Havard University. Countee Cullen won the Witter Bynner Poetry Prize and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. His poems was accepted by major american literary magazines regularly. His first collection of poems called Color was was published to critical acclaim befor he finished college.
Some of Cullen's most notable works are Copper Sun, The Ballad of the Brown Girl, and The Medea and Some Poems. Countee Cullen wrote a novel about life in Harlem called One Way to Heaven. His poems expressed racial themes and were always fresh and sensitively treated. From 1934 until his death Countee Cullen taught in New York public schools.
