biography

“[T]he sincere, sensitive artist, willing to go beneath the cliches of popular belief to get at an underlying reality, will be wary of confining a race's entire characters to a half-dozen narrow grooves.”

Biography

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The Life of Sterling Allen Brown

A Pioneer, A Writer, A Poet, A Folklorist, A Critic, and A Teacher

He was born on May 1, 1901 to Sterling Nelson Brown and Adelaide Allen
His father worked as a pastor at Lincoln Temple Congregational Church and as a professor of religion at Howard University
His family raised him up in a rich intellectual environment
His mother made Brown read the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Paul Lawrence DuBois
Attended Dunbar High School
Brown entered Williams College under an academic scholarship in 1918
Here he studied African American music and read works by Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, and Sinclair Lewis
In 1922, Brown enrolled in Harvard University
Brown first read Robert Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson here
After receiving his master’s degree from Harvard, Brown became a professor of English at Virginia Seminary and College
Here, Brown developed a strong relationships with students and routinely had them over to listen to African American music and read poetry
At Virginia Seminary and College, Brown undertook the task of studying and learning the dialect of rural black residents, which would later be a key element in his style of poetry
Brown finally married the love of his life, Daisy Turnbull, in 1927 and had two kids later on
In 1929, he started teaching at Howard University
At Howard Brown served as a mentor as well as a teacher
During his time at Howard, Brown studied and wrote about African-American literature and folklore
In 1932, Brown published his first collection of poetry, Southern Road, in which he incorporated rural themes and expounded upon the dignity and desolation of country blacks
After 40 great years at Howard he retired and began writing poetry again
Brown published The Last Ride of Wild Bill and Eleven Narratives in 1975
One of his many achievements include his title as poet laureate of Washington D.C and his membership in The Academy of American Poets
Suffering from leukemia, Brown died at the age of 88 on January 13, 1989
Brown’s work was neglected during his life and later was appreciated after his death, but his poems defined popular black poetry