Home to Harlem , the first published novel by the Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay , follows the life of Jake, an African-American longshoreman who enlists with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I before deserting and returning to Harlem. Upon his return, Jake indulges in all of the sensual pleasures Harlem has to offer, including a series of sexual entanglements. Owing to its sexually explicit depiction of Harlem nightlife, Home to Harlem received a polarized reception from other African-American authors. Langston Hughes celebrated it as a book "which ought to give a second youth to the Negro Vogue," whereas W. E. B. Du Bois declared that "after the dirtier parts of its filth I feel distinctly like taking a bath." It remains a classic novel of the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay (died 1948) was an influential writer of the modernist period. Their work has endured across generations and continues to be read and studied worldwide. As a work of classic literary fiction, Home To Harlem exemplifies the narrative craft and social insight that defined great storytelling of its era. Literary fiction of this period was characterized by careful attention to character psychology, social milieu, and the moral questions that animated public discourse.
