A Long Way From Home.pdf - Site de Thomas - Free

xiv • chronology
1933 Continues to work on The Jungle and the Bottoms, retitled as
Savage Loving, but publishers reject it. In March, Banana Bottom
appears in print. In December, leaves Morocco for Spain.
1934 In January, sails from Spain and arrives in New York; heads to
Harlem. In late summer, circulates a letter, “For a Negro Magazine,”
sent to prospective supporters of a periodical that he
intends to edit and call Bambara, but the effort fails. In October,
arranges to work at Camp Greycourt, an alcoholic rehabilitation
center, but leaves a couple of months later.
1935 Begins work on A Long Way from Home. Publishes “Harlem
Runs Wild,” an article about the recent riots and looting of Jewish-run
merchant stores in Harlem, in the April issue of the
Nation.
1936 By September, finishes A Long Way from Home.
1937 Publishes A Long Way from Home. In the fall issue of New Challenge,
Locke denounces the book as the autobiography of a
“spiritual truant.” McKay becomes a member of New York
City’s Federal Writers’ Project (FWP). He also becomes a member
of a Communist-supported Negro Writers’ Guild of FWP
members, which breaks up in July. His growing anti-Communist
sentiment leads him to spearhead non-Communist association
for black writers.
1938 With Countee Cullen, on behalf of the Negro Writers’ Guild,
McKay begins to negotiate for control of the monthly magazine
African: A Journal of African Affairs, run by the Universal
Ethiopian Students’ Association. Intends to rephrase the subtitle
to “A Journal of Literary Social Progress.” Negotiations
fail, and the association for black writers shuts down. Begins
to write an anti-Communist history of Harlem, Harlem: Negro
Metropolis, while working on a related novel, Harlem Glory.
Late in the year, quits the FWP.
1940 In October, publishes Harlem: Negro Metropolis.
1942 Contracts influenza and develops high blood pressure and
heart disease. Ellen Tarry, a writer befriended in the Negro
Authors’ Guild and a devout Roman Catholic, finds McKay