George Marion McClellan is an unusual figure in the history of black American literature. A poet and short story writer, he began his career on something of a cusp in black American literary history, as the literature itself was becoming increasingly race-conscious and increasingly concerned with the meaning of racial identity. As a poet McClellan showed little interest in such issues, devotedly pursuing a poetry of sentimentalism. As a writer of short stories, however, he displayed a keen awareness of the issues facing black Americans in the years leading up to World War I and a perspective on those issues that was often distinctive.

George Marion McClellan was born in Belfast, Tennessee, in 1860. Little is known of his early life and experiences, but he was, in his adult life and career, typical of the kind of educated, middle-class men and women who comprised the greatest number of black...