Banjo
Feb 2028 · Sold by Penguin
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304
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About this ebook
Claude McKay’s picaresque of 1920s Marseille, a paean to Black diaspora
A Penguin Classic
On the shores of the Vieux Port of Marseille, Lincoln Agrippa Daily, better known as “Banjo,” panhandles alongside friends and fellow migrants, busking at bars and escaping drunken scrums, in search of money, wine, camaraderie, and a good time. As Banjo and the “beach boys” drift through the dives of “The Ditch,” they reflect on race, class, labor, and the challenges of living as working-class, Black men in cities and countries to which they are anathema. When the itinerant writer Ray joins the group, Banjo begins to explore the existential implications of being Black in a world that moves—in its contempt, indifference, and defiance—to the “sweet jazzing of life.” Published a year after Claude McKay’s bestselling Home to Harlem, Banjo transports readers to the gritty, vivacious streets of 1920s Marseille and offers timeless meditations on Black transnational solidarity, friendship, music, and belonging.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A Penguin Classic
On the shores of the Vieux Port of Marseille, Lincoln Agrippa Daily, better known as “Banjo,” panhandles alongside friends and fellow migrants, busking at bars and escaping drunken scrums, in search of money, wine, camaraderie, and a good time. As Banjo and the “beach boys” drift through the dives of “The Ditch,” they reflect on race, class, labor, and the challenges of living as working-class, Black men in cities and countries to which they are anathema. When the itinerant writer Ray joins the group, Banjo begins to explore the existential implications of being Black in a world that moves—in its contempt, indifference, and defiance—to the “sweet jazzing of life.” Published a year after Claude McKay’s bestselling Home to Harlem, Banjo transports readers to the gritty, vivacious streets of 1920s Marseille and offers timeless meditations on Black transnational solidarity, friendship, music, and belonging.
Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Claude McKay’s picaresque of 1920s Marseille, a paean to Black diaspora
A Penguin Classic
On the shores of the Vieux Port of Marseille, Lincoln Agrippa Daily, better known as “Banjo,” panhandles alongside friends and fellow migrants, busking at bars and escaping drunken scrums, in search of mon...
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About the author
Claude McKay (1889–1948), born Festus Claudius McKay, is widely regarded as one of the most important literary and political writers of the interwar period and the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jamaica, he moved to the United States in 1912 to study at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1928, he published his most famous novel, Home to Harlem, which won the Harmon gold medal for literature. He also published two other novels, Banjo and Banana Bottom; a collection of short stories, Gingertown; two autobiographical books, A Long Way from Home and My Green Hills of Jamaica, and a work of nonfiction, Harlem: Negro Metropolis. His Selected Poems was published posthumously, and in 1977 he was named the national poet of Jamaica. In 2009, his lost manuscript for the 1930s novel Amiable with Big Teeth was discovered among the archived papers of Samuel Roth at Columbia University, and it was published for the first time in 2017 by Penguin Classics. Romance in Marseille was published in 2020 by Penguin Classics.
Brent Hayes Edwards (introduction) is a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. In 2023 he co-wrote Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music, an autobiography of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Henry Threadgill, which won a 2024 American Book Award. Edwards was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020. His other books include The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism and Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination.
Brent Hayes Edwards (introduction) is a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. In 2023 he co-wrote Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music, an autobiography of Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Henry Threadgill, which won a 2024 American Book Award. Edwards was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020. His other books include The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism and Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination.
Claude McKay (1889–1948), born Festus Claudius McKay, is widely regarded as one of the most important literary and political writers of the interwar period and the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jamaica, he moved to the United States in 1912 to study at the Tuskegee Institute. In 1928, he published ...
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