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Langston Hughes

(1902-1967)

American Negro Poet

 

 

 

Books by Langston Hughes

 

Weary Blues (1926) / The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes  /  The Ways of White Folks (Stories) / The Big Sea: An Autobiography

 

A New Song (1938) / Best of Simple    /  I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey  / New Negro Poets U.S.A.

 

Not Without Laughter  /Five Plays by Langston Hughes / Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

 

Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz / Fine Clothes to the Jew / The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (Poems 1921-1940)

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Langston Hughes -- born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri -- is usually considered the dean of American Negro poets. His parents divorced when he was a child, and his father moved to Mexico. he was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry.

Following graduation from high school, Hughes spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia university. During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and traveled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. in November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes first book of Poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A Knopf in 1926. he finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. in 1930 his first novel, Not Without laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman were Hughes primary literary influences. He is known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. he wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in montage of a dream deferred.

His life and work were influential in the shaping of what came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen identified fiercely his personal experience with that of the common experiences of the American Negro. He wanted to tell their stories that reflected their dignity, humor, suffering, and language.

Langston died of complications from prostate cancer May 22, 1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and east 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

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Weary Blues (1926) / The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes  /  The Ways of White Folks (Stories) / The Big Sea: An Autobiography / Best of Simple

Not Without Laughter  /  I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey / Five Plays by Langston Hughes / Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

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I, Too, Sing America

I, too, sing America

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

 

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

 

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

 

I, too am America.

 

Madam and her Madam

I worked for a woman,

She wasn't mean--

But she had a twelve-room

House to clean.

 

Had to get breakfast,

Dinner, and supper, too--

Then take care of her children

When I got through.

 

Wash, iron, and scrub,

Walk the dog around--

It was too much,

Nearly broke me down.

 

I said, Madam,

Can it be

You trying to make a

Pack-horse out of me?

 

She opened her mouth.

She cried, Oh, no!

You know, Alberta,

I love you so!

 

I said, Madam,

That may be true--

But I'll be dogged

If I love you!

 

The Weary Blues

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

          I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

          He did a lazy sway . . .

          he did a lazy sway . . .

To the tune o' those Werary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key

he made that poor piano moan with melody.

          O Blues!

Swaying to and from on his rickety stool

He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

          Sweet Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that negro sing, that old piano moan--

          "Ain't got nobody in all this world,

             Ain't got but me self.

             I's gwine to quit ma fronwin'

             And put ma troubles on the shelf."

 

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more--

          "I got the Weary Blues

             And I can't be satisfied.

             Got the Weary Blues

             And can't be satisfied--

             I ain't happy no mo'

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed

While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

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Scholarly Books on Langston Hughes

Martha Cobb. Harlem,  Haiti, and Havana: A comparative critical study of Langston Hughes, Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén. 1979.

Faith Berry. Before & Beyond Harlem: Biography of Langston Hughes. 1995.

Onwuchekwa Jemie Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985)

Edward J. Mullen. Langston Hughes in the Hispanic World and Haiti (1971)

Arnold Rampersad. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America (Life of Langston Hughes, 1902-1941). 2002

Arnold Rampersad. The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914-1967, I Dream a World (Life of Langston Hughes, 1941-1967). 2002

Steven C. Tracy. Langston Hughes and the Blues. 2001

R. Baxter Miller. The Art And Imagination of Langston Hughes. 2006.

Jonathan Scott Socialist Joy in the Writing of Langston Hughes. 2006

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updated 1 October 2007

 

 

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Related files: New Negro Poets U.S.A.   In Praise of Langston Hughes  Sermon and Blues    Notes of a Native Son  (Langston Reviews Baldwin)

 Langston Hughes Comments on Christian's Blues Poems   Fifty Influential Figures