McKay

[muh-key]

McKay, Claude, 1890-1948, American poet and novelist, b. Jamaica, studied at Tuskegee and the Univ. of Kansas. A major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, McKay is best remembered for his poems treating racial themes. His works include the volumes of poetry Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922); and the novels Home to Harlem (1927), Banjo (1929), and Banana Bottom (1933). For years McKay was involved in radical political activities, but he became increasingly disillusioned, and in 1944 he converted to Roman Catholicism.

See his autobiography, A Long Way from Home (1937).

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McKay

McKay, Donald, 1810-80, American shipbuilder, b. Nova Scotia. He opened his own shipyard in Newburyport, Mass., in 1841, then moved to Boston in 1845. He grew celebrated as designer and builder of the largest ships of his time and sleek, swift clippers, some of the most beautiful ships ever to sail the seas. Some of the vessels he built were the New World, a three-decker, the largest ship known in 1845; the Lightning and the James Baines, clippers which established new speed records for the long England-to-Australia route; and the Glory of the Seas, which in 1869 made a record run of 94 days from New York to San Francisco. He built several ships for the Union navy in the Civil War.

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Licensed from Columbia University Press

Rorty, Richard (McKay)

(born Oct. 4, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 2007, Palo Alto, Calif.) U.S. philosopher. After receiving a Ph.D. at Yale University in 1956, he taught at Wellesley College, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and Stanford University. An opponent of epistemological foundationalism, Rorty held that no statement is epistemologically more basic than any other and no statement is ever justified finally or absolutely. He also rejected the idea that sentences or beliefs are true or false in any interesting sense other than being useful or successful within a broad social practice (see pragmatism). Because there is no such thing as certainty or absolute truth, according to Rorty, it is not the purpose of philosophy to pursue such things; its role instead should be to conduct a “conversation” between contrasting but equally valid forms of intellectual inquiry. His publications include Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (1989).

Learn more about Rorty, Richard (McKay) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Richard McKay Rorty

(born Oct. 4, 1931, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died June 8, 2007, Palo Alto, Calif.) U.S. philosopher. After receiving a Ph.D. at Yale University in 1956, he taught at Wellesley College, Princeton University, the University of Virginia, and Stanford University. An opponent of epistemological foundationalism, Rorty held that no statement is epistemologically more basic than any other and no statement is ever justified finally or absolutely. He also rejected the idea that sentences or beliefs are true or false in any interesting sense other than being useful or successful within a broad social practice (see pragmatism). Because there is no such thing as certainty or absolute truth, according to Rorty, it is not the purpose of philosophy to pursue such things; its role instead should be to conduct a “conversation” between contrasting but equally valid forms of intellectual inquiry. His publications include Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (1979), Consequences of Pragmatism (1982), and Contingency, Irony and Solidarity (1989).

Learn more about Rorty, Richard (McKay) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

McKay, Claude

(born Sept. 15, 1890, Jamaica, British West Indies—died May 22, 1948, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Jamaican-born U.S. poet and novelist. He published two volumes of Jamaican dialect verse before moving to the U.S. in 1912. With the publication of the poetry volumes Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922), he emerged as the first and most militant voice of the Harlem Renaissance. An advocate of civil rights and racial solidarity, in his writings he searched among the common people for a distinctive black identity. His Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel by an American black to that time. He lived abroad in various countries from 1922 to 1934.

Learn more about McKay, Claude with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Claude McKay

(born Sept. 15, 1890, Jamaica, British West Indies—died May 22, 1948, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) Jamaican-born U.S. poet and novelist. He published two volumes of Jamaican dialect verse before moving to the U.S. in 1912. With the publication of the poetry volumes Spring in New Hampshire (1920) and Harlem Shadows (1922), he emerged as the first and most militant voice of the Harlem Renaissance. An advocate of civil rights and racial solidarity, in his writings he searched among the common people for a distinctive black identity. His Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel by an American black to that time. He lived abroad in various countries from 1922 to 1934.

Learn more about McKay, Claude with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

McKay

McKay is a surname and may refer to: