Countée Cullen papers, 1900-1947 | Amistad Research Center

The papers of poet and playwright Countée Cullen document his personal and professional lives, as well as his relations with leading writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance era.  Among the papers, which measure 7.8 linear feet, are correspondence; accounts, records, documents, legal papers, and certificates; a fragmentary diary (1928); teaching plan books and other teaching records; writings, including, articles, a book review, letters to editors, juvenile novels, plays, poems, a radio serial, and a short story; sheet music; notes and lists; scrapbooks and clippings; biographical sketches and obituaries; photographs; programs, invitations, and announcements; pamphlets, leaflets, and several periodicals; and phonograph records. The greater part of the collection consists of the correspondence of Countée Cullen and his writings. 

The letters of Cullen and his contemporaries reveal their close associations and provide insight into their lives, as well as their thoughts on the writing and art, collectively and individually, being produced during the Harlem Renaissance. Cullen’s writings represented in the collection range from hand script and typescript drafts to published works in serial, book, and broadside formats. A number of Cullen’s poems set to music are also represented.

Cullen’s personal life is represented by legal, medical, and other documents, as well as certificates and other ephemera. The collection also includes a number of scrapbooks and notebooks containing Cullen’s thoughts, essays, and poems. Teaching plan books, as well as student exams and poems, provide a view of Cullen’s later life as a teacher. Much like the correspondence in the collection, the photographs include those of not only Cullen, but many of his contemporaries.