Langston Hughes - (1902-1967)
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I. Biography Langston Hughes was born and raised in the city of Lawrence, Kansas. Langston Hughes lived a very lonely childhood. His father left the family when
Langston was young and emigrated to Mexico. Hughes' mother was often away from home doing various activities. This left young Hughes to be reared by his grandmother. His best friend became his love of
the written word, both in the sense of reading and writing. Hughes' writing style and attitude was much affected by his grandmother's fierce abolitionist thought. Hughes'
grandfather was killed in John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. While in high school, Hughes published his first work of poems. After high school,
Hughes' father paid for Hughes' admission to Columbia University in New York City on the premise that Langston study engineering. Hughes' father did not believe that being a
writer would provide any sort of decent life for his son. After a few months at Columbia, Hughes dropped out with a B+ average. He was disinterested in engineering. He wanted
to pursue his life dream of becoming a professional writer. Hughes took many odd jobs and continued his writing. He got published in such papers as The Crisis and Opportunity.
Hughes took a few years to go abroad and see the world but returned to Harlem, New York in 1924. During this time the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. Hughes quickly
became one of the fueling contributors of the Harlem Renaissance. His works inspired many African American writers and artists to be even more creative and prolific. Hughes
even created a new form of poetry where he blended the normal verse of poetry and blended it with blues and jazz. May 22,1967, at his home of 20 East 127th
Street in Harlem, Langston Hughes passed away. His life was an accomplished one through his 16 books of poems, 2 novels, 3 short story collections, 4 volumes of editorial and documentary fiction, 20 plays, children's poetry,
musicals and operas, 3 autobiographies, and dozens of magazine articles. II. Writer's Home Langston Hughes did much of his writing in the blues and Jazz clubs of Harlem, New York.
It was in these clubs that he blended the life and feeling of the music with the words of poetry. III. List of Works Autobiographies Poetry Collections Edited Anthologies IV. Links
Not without Laughter (1930)
The Big Sea (1940)
I Wonder As I Wander (1956)
The Weary Blues (1926)
The Negro Mother and other Dramatic Recitations (1931)
The Dream Keeper (1932)
Shakespeare in Harlem (1942)
Fields of Wonder (1947)
One Way Ticket (1947)
The First Book of Jazz (1955)
An African Treasury (1960)
Poems from Black Africa (1963)
New Negro Poets: USA (1964)
The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers (1967)
This is a site with many useful biographies of famous people, like Langston Hughes.
http://www.nku.edu/~diesmanj/harlem.html
This website contains much information on the Harlem Renaissance V. Bibliography "Langston Hughes: The Poet Laureate of Harlem" (Online) Available
"James Langston Hughes" (Online) Available
http://www.redhotjazz.com/hughes.html
This essay was submitted by a student of Marylin Dykens, a teacher at Rome Free Academy in Rome, New York.