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Waring Cuney (1906-1976): Author Page

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William Waring Cuney was born and raised in Washington, DC; his father was a government employee and his mother taught in DC public schools. Cuney attended Howard University for two years before transferring to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a B.A. 

Cuney's poem "No Images" won him a prize in the 1926 Opportunity magazine poetry competition, while the author was still a student at Lincoln University. Cuney also became friends with Langston Hughes at Lincoln, and appeared with Hughes and Edward Silvera in Four Lincoln University Poets, an anthology published in 1928. 

Cuney continued to write poetry after the end of the first flowering of the Harlem Renaissance, and published two books of poetry later in life, Puzzles (1960; published in the Netherlands), and Storefront Church (London, 1973). 

In 1942, Cuney enlisted in the Army and served in the 857th Engineer Aviation Battalion during World War II. He was mainly stationed in the Asian theater, where biographers indicate he helped to build runways for military aircraft. Cuney never married, though biographers suggest he did have a relationship with a nurse from Wisconsin named Adeline Norris.

See this detailed profile of Cuney here.

Contents of this path:

  1. Waring Cuney, Biographical Note in "Caroling Dusk" (1927)
  2. Waring Cuney, "The Death Bed" (1926)
  3. Waring Cuney, "Grave" (1926)
  4. Waring Cuney, "No Images" (1927)
  5. Waring Cuney, "A Triviality" (1927)
  6. Waring Cuney, "The Radical" (1927)
  7. Waring Cuney, "True Love" (1927)
  8. Waring Cuney, "I Think I See Him There" (1927)
  9. Waring Cuney, "Dust" (1927)
  10. Waring Cuney, "Interior Decoration" (1927)
  11. Waring Cuney, "Aint Nobody But You" (1928)
  12. Waring Cuney, "Da Jail Blues Song" (1928)
  13. Waring Cuney, "Hammer Song" (1928)
  14. Waring Cuney, "Jes Moochin' Along" 1928)
  15. Waring Cuney, "Murder Blues" (1928)
  16. Waring Cuney, "Old Man Death" (1928)
  17. Waring Cuney, "Once Bad Gal" (1928)
  18. Waring Cuney, "Pick Song" (1928)
  19. Waring Cuney, "Suicide" (1928)
  20. Waring Cuney, "Play a Blues for Louise" (1929)
  21. Waring Cuney, "On With the Dirge" (1929)
  22. Waring Cuney, "Nude Walker" (1929)
  23. Waring Cuney, "Railway Club" (1929)
  24. Waring Cuney, "Jazz Band" (1929)