Claude McKay: A Black Poet's Struggle for Identity

IT IS A pleasure to be able to thank some of the many individuals and institutions who have generously helped me in the development and preparation of this book. I am indebted to my mentors August Meier and the late Elliott Rudwick for sharing with me, as a graduate student at Kent State University, their extraordinary knowledge of African-American history. Professor Ernest Allen, Jr., of the University of Massachusetts provided me with invaluable help in understanding the "New Negro." Steven Mintz of the University of Houston not only read through the various drafts of the manuscript and offered excellent advice, but, more important, he gave me the encouragement scholars hope to receive from a fellow colleague.

I would also like to thank a number of other individuals who have contributed in their own ways toward the completion of this book. Copyeditor Philip G. Holthaus's thoroughness improved the overall quality of the work. Jenny Corbin, the manuscript typist in the Department of History at Wayne State University, deserves my gratitude for her willingness to retype the pages through their many drafts. Colleague Alan Raucher read the manuscript early in its preparation and offered valuable advice. Special thanks also go to Clark Dougan, senior editor at the University of Massachusetts Press, whose kindness and support I have greatly appreciated through the long process of preparing this book for publication.

In addition, I also would like to thank the many people at the various research institutions for their cooperation. Among them: Andy Simons at the Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, New Orleans; Esme Bhan at the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, D.C.; Saundra Taylor at the Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; Patricia C. Willis at the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale Library, New

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