Countee Cullen, “Atlantic City Waiter”
A writer of the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen grew up in Harlem and started publishing poetry as a schoolboy. His first book of poetry Color (1925) was published before he graduated college at NYU. He is heavily influenced by Classical (ancient Greek) and Romantic poets–that is, a groups of British poets who wrote at the turn of the nineteenth century. In addition to writing poetry, Cullen also taught at a junior high school, published two children’s books, wrote and adapted plays, and edited an anthology of Black poets of the twentieth century.
