Langston Hughes Popular Books

Langston Hughes Biography & Facts

James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." Growing up in a series of Midwestern towns, Hughes became a prolific writer at an early age. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. He graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and soon began studies at Columbia University in New York City. Although he dropped out, he gained notice from New York publishers, first in The Crisis magazine and then from book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem. His first poetry collection, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926. Hughes eventually graduated from Lincoln University. In addition to poetry, he wrote plays and published short story collections, novels, and several nonfiction works. From 1942 to 1962, as the civil rights movement gained traction, Hughes wrote an in-depth weekly opinion column in a leading black newspaper, The Chicago Defender. Biography Ancestry and childhood Like many African-Americans, Hughes was of mixed ancestry. Both of Hughes' paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky. According to Hughes, one of these men was Sam Clay, a Scottish-American whiskey distiller of Henry County, said to be a relative of statesman Henry Clay. The other putative paternal ancestor whom Hughes named was Silas Cushenberry, a slave trader of Clark County, who Hughes claimed to be Jewish. Hughes's maternal grandmother Mary Patterson was of African-American, French, English and Native American descent. One of the first women to attend Oberlin College, she married Lewis Sheridan Leary, also of mixed-race descent, before her studies. In 1859, Lewis Leary joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in West Virginia, where he was fatally wounded. Ten years later, in 1869, the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. (See The Talented Tenth.) Her second husband was Charles Henry Langston, of African-American, Euro-American and Native American ancestry. He and his younger brother John Mercer Langston worked for the abolitionist cause and helped lead the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1858. After their marriage, Charles Langston moved with his family to Kansas, where he was active as an educator and activist for voting and rights for African Americans. His and Mary's daughter Caroline (known as Carrie) became a schoolteacher and married James Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). They had two children; the second was Langston Hughes, by most sources born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri (though Hughes himself claims in his autobiography to have been born in 1902). Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns. His father left the family soon after the boy was born and later divorced Carrie. The senior Hughes traveled to Cuba and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States. After the separation, Hughes's mother traveled, seeking employment. Langston was raised mainly in Lawrence, Kansas, by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston. Through the black American oral tradition and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation, Mary Langston instilled in her grandson a lasting sense of racial pride. Imbued by his grandmother with a duty to help his race, Hughes identified with neglected and downtrodden black people all his life, and glorified them in his work. He lived most of his childhood in Lawrence. In his 1940 autobiography The Big Sea, he wrote: "I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books—where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas." After the death of his grandmother, Hughes went to live with family friends, James and Auntie Mary Reed, for two years. Later, Hughes lived again with his mother Carrie in Lincoln, Illinois. She had remarried when he was an adolescent. The family moved to the Fairfax neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended Central High School and was taught by Helen Maria Chesnutt, whom he found inspiring. His writing experiments began when he was young. While in grammar school in Lincoln, Hughes was elected class poet. He stated that in retrospect he thought it was because of the stereotype about African Americans having rhythm. I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet. During high school in Cleveland, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write his first short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz poetry, "When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was in high school. Relationship with father Hughes had a very poor relationship with his father, whom he seldom saw when a child. He lived briefly with his father in Mexico in 1919. Upon graduating from high school in June 1920, Hughes returned to Mexico to live with his father, hoping to convince him to support his plan to attend Columbia University. Hughes later said that, prior to arriving in Mexico, "I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much." His father had hoped Hughes would choose to study at a university abroad and train for a career in engineering. He was willing to provide financial assistance to his son on these grounds, but did not support his desire to be a writer. Eventually, Hughes and his father came to a compromise: Hughes would study engineering, so long as he could attend Columbia. His tuition provided, Hughes left his father after more than a year. While at Columbia in 1921, Hughes managed to maintain a B+ grade average. He published poetry in the Columbia Daily Spectator under a pen name. He left in 1922 because of racial prejudice among students and teachers. He was denied a room on campus because he was black. Eventually he settled in Hartley Hall, but he still suffered from racism among his classmates, who seemed hostile to anyone who did not fit into a WASP category. He was attracted more to the African-American people and neighborhood of Harlem than to his studies, but he continued writing poetry. Harlem was a center of vibrant cultural life. Adulthood Hughes worked at v.... Discover the Langston Hughes popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Langston Hughes books.

Best Seller Langston Hughes Books of 2024

Radical Walking Tours of New York City, Third Edition
Bruce Kayton
Too often, tours of New York City are paeans to powerextolling the fabled New York skyline and the robber barrons whose wealth built it up, praising the marvels of a city built lar...
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
First published in 1926, ‘The Weary Blues’ is Langston Hughes’s first collection of poetry. Broken into seven thematic sections, the sixtyeight poems capture the heart of a young b...
A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories
Bettye Collier-Thomas
An Esquire “Best Christmas Book to Read During the Holidays” An anthology of 22 Christmas stories written by African American journalists, activists, and writers from the late 19th...
The New York Times Book Review
The New York Times, Tina Jordan & Noor Qasim
A “delightful” (Vanity Fair) collection from the longestrunning, most influential book review in America, featuring its best, funniest, strangest, and most memorable coverage over ...
The Mule-Bone, a comedy of negro life in three acts
Langston Hughes
According to Wikipedia: "James Mercer Langston Hughes, best known as Langston Hughes, (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writ...
Blues in Stereo
Langston Hughes
Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes was most wellknown for his poems, novels, and plays that highlight Black American life in postslavery America. James Mercer Langston Hughes ...
Everyday People
Jennifer Baker
“A delight and highly recommended.” Booklist “Showcases the truth and fullness of people of color.” Book Riot In the tradition of Best American Short Stories comes Everyday People:...
Langston Hughes
C. James Trotman
First published in 1995. This volume focuses on the life and influence of Langston Hughes (19021967) and forms part of the Critical Studies in Black Life and Culture series. The s...
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
NATIONAL BESTSELLER The book that galvanized the nation, gave voice to the emerging civil rights movementin the 1960sand still lights the way to understanding race in America toda...
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in Black writing in Americathe poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death and re...
Tambourines to Glory
Langston Hughes
Finally available in trade paperback, Langston Hughes’s breezy parable of good and evil, friendship and betrayal, is an unforgettable portrait of 1950s Harlem and two women called ...
Lover Man
Alston Anderson & Kinohi Nishikawa
On the Shoulders of Giants
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
New York Times bestselling author and living legend Kareem AbdulJabbar shares how the power of the Harlem Renaissance led him to become the man he is todaybasketball superstar, jaz...
Langston Hughes
Montrew Dunham
Get to know the influential African American poet Langston Hughes in this middle grade nonfiction biography of his early years!An engaging biography of American poet, Langston Hugh...
There Was a Party for Langston
Jason Reynolds
A Caldecott Honor Book A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor BookNew York Times bestselling and awardwinning author Jason Reynolds’s debut picture book is a snappy, joyous ode to ...
The Short Stories of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes & Akiba Sullivan Harper
The Short Stories of Langston HughesThis collection of fortyseven stories written between 1919 and 1963the most comprehensive availableshowcases Langston Hughes's literary blossomi...
Till Victory Is Won
Janet Cheatham Bell
Taking its title from the moving lyrics of the official song of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, "Lift Every Voice and Sing," Till Victory Is Won chr...
Langston Hughes
Surinder Kumar Verma
Langston Hughes is usually thought of as a poet, but he also wrote novels, plays, short stories, essays, autobiographies, newspaper columns, children's books, and the words to oper...
How Lovely the Ruins
Annie Chagnot & Emi Ikkanda
This wideranging collection of inspirational poetry and prose offers readers solace, perspective, and the courage to persevere.In times of personal hardship or collective anxiety, ...
Demagogue
Larry Tye
The definitive biography of the most dangerous demagogue in American history, based on exclusive access to his papers and recently unsealed transcripts of his closeddoor Congressio...
Original Zinn
Howard Zinn
The acclaimed historian and author of the classic A People’s History of the United States offers a deeply personal look at the events, issues, and people that matter to us allBased...
Finding Langston
Lesa Cline-Ransome
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor BookWinner of the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical FictionWhen elevenyearold Langston's father moves them from their home in Alabama to Chicago's...
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems
Langston Hughes
Illus. in blackandwhite. This classic collection of poetry is available in a handsome new gift edition that includes seven additional poems written after The Dream Keeper was first...
Langston Hughes
Bonnie Greer
Langston Hughes was a man far ahead of his time, but his actions were often unpredictable, contradictory and refused classification. To give an example, he campaigned tirelessly fo...
Subverting the History of Slavery and Colonization in the Poetry of M. Al-Fayturi and Langston Hughes.
The Western Journal of Black Studies
Introduction While the painful ordeal of slavery and colonization turned the black people of Africa into a nation of exiles and outcasts, the same experience brings about enormous ...
Selected Letters of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad, David Roessel & Christa Fratantoro
This is the first comprehensive selection from the correspondence of the iconic and beloved Langston Hughes. It offers a life in letters that showcases his many struggles as well a...
I Wonder as I Wander
Langston Hughes
In I Wonder as I Wander, Langston Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s.His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, ...
Of One Blood
Pauline Hopkins
“Mysticism, horror, and racial identity merge fluidly in this thrilling tale of love, obsession, and power” (Publishers Weekly) written by one of the lesserknown literary figures o...
Self Made
A'Lelia Bundles
Now a Netflix series starring Octavia Spencer, Self Made (formerly titled On Her Own Ground) is the first fullscale biography of “one of the great success stories of American histo...
The Mule-Bone
Zora Neale Hurston
This story begins in Eatonville, Florida, on a Saturday afternoon with Jim and Dave fighting for Daisy's affection. An argument breaks out between two men, and Jim picks up a h...
Langston Hughes
Bart McCarthy
This play weaves together Hughes' own life story, his poetry and stort stories, and the music that helped mold his life: Jazz, Gospel and the Blues. The play shows the signific...
Langston Hughes in Context
Vera M Kutzinski & ANTHONY REED
Langston Hughes was among the most influential African American writers of the twentieth century. He inspired and challenged readers from Harlem to the Caribbean, Europe, South Ame...
Male black identity in selected works by Langston Hughes
Sarah Wienand
Throughout many years, African Americans have been struggling in defining and constructing their identity, especially male African Americans had problems to build up selfesteem and...
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
A collection of vibrant and incisive short stories depicting the sometimes humorous, but more often tragic interactions between Black people and white people in America in the 1920...
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
This celebratory edition of the classic poetry collection reminds us of Hughes's stunning achievement, speaking directly, intimately, and powerfully of Black experiences ...
Jump at the Sun
Alicia D. Williams
From the Newbery Honor–winning author of Genesis Begins Again comes a shimmering picture book that shines the light on Zora Neale Hurston, the extraordinary writer and storycatcher...
Langston Hughes
W. Jason Miller
As the first black author in America to make his living exclusively by writing, Langston Hughes inspired a generation of writers and activists. One of the pioneers of jazz poetry, ...
The Great Poems by African American Writers
Phillis Wheatley, Frances E. W. Harper, James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen & Langston Hughes
African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18thcentury writers as Phil...
Father and Son
Langston Hughes
A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection Colonel Norwood is the despotic owner of Big House Plantation, where he lives alone but for the occasional company of his blac...
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was one of the bestknown poets in modern America and his first novel, "Not Without Laughter," is undoubtedly his finest prose. A classic of AfricanAmerican literatu...