October 8, 2012

'It's Almost as if Max Eastman Quoted From the Novel ... So That We'd Have This Great Proof'

'It's Almost as if Max Eastman Quoted From the Novel ... So That We'd Have This Great Proof' 1

Robert Caplin, The New York Times

Jean-Christophe Cloutier (left) with Brent Edwards, his adviser. Mr. Cloutier found a heretofore unknown manuscript by Claude McKay, a Harlem Renaissance writer.

By Jenny Rogers

In 2009, Jean-Christophe Cloutier, a graduate student in English and comparative-literature at Columbia University, discovered what other scholars only dream about: a hitherto unknown manuscript by a famous writer. Working as an intern at the university's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Mr. Cloutier found a 1941 manuscript, "Amiable With Big Teeth," by the Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay. He had been sorting through a collection of the publisher