COUNTEE CULLEN

COUNTEE CULLEN WAS BORN ON MAY 30,1903.

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• No one is sure of the location of Countee Cullen's birth, but many say that he was born
• in either Louisville or New York City.

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• Countee Cullen was raised by his grandmother. After her death in 1908, he
• was adopted by Frederick Cullen of a New York City Methodist Episcopal Church.

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• Countee Cullen attended DeWitt high school. He won a city-wide poetry
• contest for his poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Life". He also edited
• his school paper.

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• After high school, Countee Cullen attended New York University.
• He graduated in 1925 and was accepted into Harvard's Masters
• program.

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• Countee Cullen published his first book of poems, Color, in 1925.
• After he graduated from Harvard, Countee Cullen traveled to France.

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• After Countee Cullen returned from France in 1928, he married
• Yolanda Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois. They divorced after
• only two years. Countee Cullen later remarried to Ida Mae Roberson
• in 1940.

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• Along with being a poet, Countee Cullen was also a novelist, playwright, and children's author.
• One of his plays, The Third Fourth of July, ran for 113 performances at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway.

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• From 1934 until his death, Countee Cullen taught French, English, and creative
• writing at Frederick Douglas Junior High School in New York. He
• continued to write poetry, novels, and plays.

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• Countee Cullen died on January 9, 1946 in New York City.
• Schools in New York City and Chicago were named after him.