One of the "second echelon" transitional poets of the Harlem Renaissance, William Waring Cuney, along with writers Frank S. Horne, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Donald Jeffrey Hayes, Helene Johnson, Gwendolyn Bennett, Arna Bontemps, and Anne Spencer, is often critically overlooked, although he made substantial contributions to the New Negro movement. Best known for his minor masterpiece "No Images," which won first prize out of 1,276 entries in the Opportunity poetry contest in 1926, Cuney used his musical and literary talents to depict the black experience in a career that spanned half a century. Cuney's obscure biography and unusual publication history make it difficult to arrange his work chronologically. Furthermore, since his poetry is not particularly autobiographical, critics have not been able to date events in his life from Cuney's work.

William Waring and his twin brother, Norris Wright, were born to Madge Louise Baker and Norris Cuney II, in Washington, D...