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Langston Hughes (1902–1967)

Author of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

237+ Works 11,925 Members 433 Reviews 48 Favorited

About the Author

Langston Hughes, February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967 Langston Hughes, one of the foremost black writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Mo. Hughes briefly attended Columbia University before working numerous jobs including busboy, cook, and steward. While show more working as a busboy, he showed his poems to American poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped launch his career. He soon obtained a scholarship to Lincoln University and had several works published. Hughes is noted for his depictions of the black experience. In addition to the black dialect, he incorporated the rhythms of jazz and the blues into his poetry. While many recognized his talent, many blacks disapproved of his unflattering portrayal of black life. His numerous published volumes include, "The Weary Blues," "Fine Clothes to the Jew," and "Montage of a Dream Deferred." Hughes earned several awards during his lifetime including: a Guggenheim fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant, and a Spingarn Medal from the NAACP. Langston Hughes died of heart failure on May 22, 1967. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: From Wikipedia. Langston Hughes photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936.

Series

Works by Langston Hughes

Not Without Laughter (1930) 624 copies
My People (2009) 377 copies
I, Too, Am America (2012) 287 copies
The Best of Simple (1961) 282 copies
The Negro Speaks of Rivers (2009) 207 copies
The Weary Blues (1926) 156 copies
Vintage Hughes (2004) 146 copies
Hughes: Poems (1999) 139 copies
The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1605) 134 copies
The Langston Hughes Reader (1958) 133 copies
The First Book of Jazz (1955) 99 copies
The Block (1995) 81 copies
The Book of Negro Folklore (1958) 72 copies
Sail Away (2015) 72 copies
Popo and Fifina (1932) 71 copies
Tambourines to Glory (1958) 69 copies
An African Treasury (1960) — Editor — 67 copies
The Return of Simple (1994) 64 copies
Simple's Uncle Sam (1965) 59 copies
Black Misery (1969) 54 copies
Simple speaks his mind (1950) 33 copies
On the Road 32 copies
The First Book of Africa (1960) 29 copies
The First Book of Rhythms (1954) 27 copies
Famous American Negroes (1612) 26 copies
Famous Negro Music Makers (1955) 26 copies
The Poetry of the Negro: 1746-1949 (1949) — Editor — 25 copies
New Negro Poets U. S. A. (1964) 24 copies
The Short Stories (2002) 23 copies
The Pasteboard Bandit (1997) 21 copies
Don't You Turn Back (1969) 20 copies
Boy of the Border (2009) — Author — 16 copies
Simple takes a wife (1953) 15 copies
Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) 14 copies
The First Book of Negroes (1952) 13 copies
Street Scene [vocal score] (1981) — Lyrics author — 12 copies
Three Negro Plays (1969) — Contributor — 11 copies
The Book of Negro Humor (1965) 10 copies
Black Nativity (1992) 9 copies
Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) 9 copies
Thank You, M'am (1991) 8 copies
One Way Ticket (1949) 8 copies
Blues (2004) 6 copies
Simple stakes a claim (1958) 6 copies
Fields of Wonder (1947) 5 copies
Mule Bone [sound recording] — Librettist — 4 copies
L'Ingénu de Harlem (2003) 4 copies
A new song 4 copies
Jim Crow's last stand (1943) 3 copies
Weary Blues (1991) 2 copies
The Story of Jazz (2012) 2 copies
Poetry 2 copies
Freedom's Plow (1943) 2 copies
Soul Gone Home (A Play) (1937) 2 copies
I, Too, Sing America (2021) 2 copies
Salvation (2003) 2 copies
Essential Langston Hughes (2007) 2 copies
Simple Omnibus (1984) 1 copy
April Rain Song (2001) 1 copy
Poem (2000) 1 copy
Coffee Break 1 copy
To You 1 copy
My America 1 copy
Dreams 1 copy
City 1 copy
Winter Moon 1 copy
The Selected Poems (1974) 1 copy
Temptation 1 copy
First Book of Africa (1961) 1 copy
Something in Common (1967) 1 copy
Poesie 1 copy

Associated Works

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (2000) — Contributor — 1,225 copies
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (1995) — Contributor, some editions — 901 copies
The Best American Essays of the Century (2000) — Contributor — 758 copies
The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (1992) — Contributor — 730 copies
The Selected Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca (1955) — Translator — 690 copies
The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis (2001) — Contributor — 537 copies
Cane [Norton Critical Edition] (1988) — Contributor — 476 copies
The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (1925) — Contributor — 423 copies
Points of View: Revised Edition (1966) — Contributor — 404 copies
The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader (1994) — Contributor — 393 copies
The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart: A Poetry Anthology (1992) — Contributor — 383 copies
Sudden Fiction: American Short-Short Stories (1984) — Contributor — 359 copies
The Black Poets (1983) — Contributor — 347 copies
Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness (1993) — Contributor — 325 copies
Americans in Paris: A Literary Anthology (2004) — Contributor — 293 copies
Diane Goode's American Christmas (1754) — Contributor — 279 copies
The Fireside Book of Christmas Stories (1944) — Contributor — 275 copies
Writing New York: A Literary Anthology (1998) — Contributor — 274 copies
The 40s: The Story of a Decade (2014) — Contributor — 266 copies
The Family Read-Aloud Christmas Treasury (1989) — Contributor — 262 copies
African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927 (1997) — Contributor — 245 copies
America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories (1993) — Contributor — 226 copies
Russell Baker's Book of American Humor (1993) — Contributor — 201 copies
Soul Looks Back in Wonder (1993) — Contributor — 198 copies
Masters of the Dew (1944) — Translator, some editions — 184 copies
This Is My Best (1942) — Contributor — 180 copies
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (2020) — Contributor — 162 copies
American Religious Poems: An Anthology (2006) — Contributor — 160 copies
Let Nobody Turn Us Around: An African American Anthology (1999) — Contributor — 143 copies
The Vintage Book of African American Poetry (2000) — Contributor — 140 copies
Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral (1957) — Translator, some editions — 117 copies
Black on White: Black Writers on What It Means to Be White (1998) — Contributor — 113 copies
Voices from the Harlem Renaissance (1976) — Contributor — 103 copies
Harlem Renaissance: Four Novels of the 1930s (2011) — Contributor — 95 copies
The 100 Best African American Poems (2010) — Contributor — 95 copies
The Norton Book of Friendship (1991) — Contributor — 92 copies
American Short Stories (1976) — Contributor, some editions — 91 copies
Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America (1995) — Contributor — 86 copies
Poems to See By: A Comic Artist Interprets Great Poetry (2020) — Contributor — 83 copies
Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (2018) — Contributor — 78 copies
Wolf's Complete Book of Terror (1979) — Contributor — 74 copies
Rotten English: A Literary Anthology (2007) — Contributor — 72 copies
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Contributor — 71 copies
Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020) — Contributor — 70 copies
My Song Is Beautiful (1994) — Contributor — 66 copies
Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor (2006) — Contributor; Contributor — 64 copies
The Hungry Ear: Poems of Food and Drink (2012) — Contributor — 62 copies
Memory of Kin: Stories About Family by Black Writers (1990) — Contributor — 61 copies
D.C. Noir 2: The Classics (2008) — Contributor — 61 copies
American Negro Short Stories (1966) — Contributor — 60 copies
American Christmas Stories (2021) — Contributor — 57 copies
Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics (2008) — Contributor — 48 copies
The Ecopoetry Anthology (2013) — Contributor — 47 copies
Soulscript: Afro-American Poetry (1970) — Contributor — 39 copies
Classic Fiction of the Harlem Renaissance (1994) — Contributor — 38 copies
I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1994) — Contributor — 33 copies
Graphic Classics: African-American Classics (2011) — Contributor — 31 copies
Hot and Cool: Jazz Short Stories (1990) — Contributor — 30 copies
Harlem U.S.A. (1964) — Contributor — 28 copies
A Treasury of African American Christmas Stories (2018) — Contributor — 26 copies
Sail Away: Stories of Escaping to Sea (2001) — Contributor — 25 copies
Elsewhere (Poets in the World) (2014) — Translator, some editions — 24 copies
Great Short Stories of the World (1965) — Contributor — 23 copies
One World of Literature (1992) — Contributor — 22 copies
Studies in Fiction (1965) — Contributor — 22 copies
The Girls from Esquire (1952) — Contributor — 18 copies
Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance 1920-1940 (1996) — Contributor — 17 copies
Travelers Tales of Old Cuba (2002) — Contributor — 16 copies
Zora Neale Hurston: Collected Plays (2008) — Contributor — 16 copies
Queer Nature: A Poetry Anthology (2022) — Contributor — 13 copies
Poets of Today: A New American Anthology. (1964) — Contributor, some editions — 11 copies
Harlem: Voices from the Soul of Black America (1970) — Contributor — 9 copies
To Break the Silence (1986) — Contributor — 9 copies
The Caedmon Short Story Collection (2001) — Contributor — 8 copies
The Short Story & You (1987) — Contributor — 7 copies
Our lives : American labor stories — Contributor — 6 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3, November 1976 (1976) — Contributor — 5 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 8, April 1974 (1974) — Contributor — 4 copies
American Short Stories (1978) — Contributor — 3 copies
Short Fiction: Shape and Substance (1971) — Contributor — 3 copies
American Short Stories (Oxford Literature Resources) (1992) — Contributor — 2 copies
Enjoying Stories (1987) — Contributor — 2 copies
Strange Barriers (1955) — Contributor — 2 copies
Introduction to Fiction (1974) — Contributor — 1 copy
Cuba Libre — Translator, some editions — 1 copy
Modern American short stories (1963) — Contributor — 1 copy
Chiral Mad 5 — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Hughes, James Mercer Langston
Birthdate
1902-02-01
Date of death
1967-05-22
Burial location
Langston Hughes Auditorium, Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem, New York, New York, USA (cremated)
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Joplin, Missouri, USA
Place of death
New York, New York, USA
Places of residence
Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Westfield, New Jersey, USA
Education
Columbia University
Lincoln University (AB|1929)
Occupations
poet
novelist
short-story writer
playwright
children's book author
essayist (show all 10)
lyricist
translator
opera composer
librettist
Relationships
Langston, John Mercer (great-uncle)
Organizations
American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature ∙ 1961)
Authors Guild
Dramatists Guild
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
National Institute of Arts and Letters
PEN (show all 13)
Omega Psi Phi
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (assistant to Carter Woodson)
Chicago Defender (columnist)
The Skyloft Players (founder)
John Reed Club
League of Struggle for Negro Rights
American Peace Mobilization
Awards and honors
Spingarn Medal, NAACP (1960)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award ( [1946])
Guggenheim Fellowship
Rosenwald Fund Fellowship
National Institute of Arts and Letters
Harmon Gold Medal for Literature (1931) (show all 11)
National Institute and American Academy of Arts and Letters grant (1947)
Langston Hughes Medal
Honorary doctorate, Howard University (1960)
LittD, Western Reserve University (1964)
Chicago Literary Hall of Fame (2012)

Members

Reviews

 
Flagged
MamaBear297 | 58 other reviews | Nov 21, 2023 |
 
Flagged
therebelprince | 12 other reviews | Oct 24, 2023 |
call-and-response, ground beat & counter rhythms, blue notes, ragtime, boogie-woogie, bent notes, swing, improvisation.

JUST FOR FUN
 
Flagged
Maristot | Oct 10, 2023 |
Absolutely beautiful.
 
Flagged
lschiff | 14 other reviews | Sep 24, 2023 |

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Associated Authors

Arnold Rampersad Editor, Introduction, Contributor, , Introduction and Afterword
Arna Bontemps Editor, Contributor, Introduction
Carl Van Vechten Contributor
Romare Bearden Illustrator
Lorraine Hansberry Contributor
LeRoi Jones Contributor
Jacques Roumain Contributor
Nicolás Guillén Contributor
Lorine Niedecker Contributor
Joanne Kyger Contributor
Michael Rumaker Contributor
Edward Dorn Contributor
John Wieners Contributor
Benny Andrews Illustrator
Brian Pinkney Illustrator
Abioseh Nicol Contributor
E.B. Lewis Illustrator
Lindsay Patterson Contributor
Junius Edwards Contributor
Jean Toomer Contributor
Ralph Ellison Contributor
Ronald L. Fair Contributor
Rudolph Fisher Contributor
Mike Thelwell Contributor
Ernest J, Gaines Contributor
Chester B. Himes Contributor
Kristin Hunter Contributor
Zora Neale Hurston Contributor
Willard Motley Contributor
Woodie King Jr. Contributor
Sylvester Leaks Contributor
Charlie L. Russell Contributor
Paule Marshall Contributor
Conrad Kent Rivers Contributor
RJ Meaddough III Contributor
Ronald Milner Contributor
Ted Poston Contributor
Katherine Dunham Contributor
Cyrus Colter Contributor
James Baldwin Contributor
Dorothy West Contributor
Eric Walrond Contributor
Robert Boles Contributor
Lebert Bethune Contributor
Owen Dodson Contributor
Gwendolyn Brooks Contributor
Frank London Brown Contributor
John A. Williams Contributor
Alice Walker Contributor
Alice Childress Contributor
John Henrik Clarke Contributor
Alston Anderson Contributor
Richard Wright Contributor
Pearl Crayton Contributor
Frank Yerby Contributor
Ben Vereen Introduction
E. Simms Campbell Illustrator
Herb Boyd Introduction
Simon Pederek Contributor
Amos Tutuola Contributor
Richard Rive Contributor
Wole Soyinka Contributor
Gabriel Okara Contributor
J Koyinde Vaughan Contributor
Can Themba Contributor
Onyenaekeya Udeagu Contributor
Aquah Laluah Contributor
Phyllis Ntantala Contributor
J. Benibengor Blay Contributor
Dei Anang Contributor
IWW Citashe Contributor
Peter Abrahams Contributor
Birago Diop Contributor
Mabel Dove-Danquah Contributor
Cyprian Ekwensi Contributor
Babs Fafunwa Contributor
Peter Kumalo Contributor
Tennyson Makiwane Contributor
Matei Markwei Contributor
Todd Matshikiza Contributor
Tom Mboya Contributor
Bloke Modisane Contributor
Marion Morel Contributor
Ezekiel Mphahlele Contributor
JH Kwabena Nketia Contributor
Kwame Nkrumah Contributor
Antonio Castro L. Illustrator
Ursula Koering Illustrator
Elmer Rice Book author
Henning Boehlke Cover designer
Mercer Cook Translator
Virginia Tan Designer
Pamela Scheier Cover designer
Helen Sewell Illustrator
Lee Bennett Hopkins Introduction
Maya Angelou Introduction
Amiri Baraka Introduction
Michael Ian Kaye Cover designer
Roy Decarava Photographer
Arthur B. Spingarn Contributor
Scott McKowen Cover artist
Robert E. Hemenway Contributor
David Diaz Cover artist
Valerie Boyd Contributor
Lou Thompson Contributor
David Martin Music selected by
Cliff Roberts Illustrator
Bill Cosby Introduction

Statistics

Works
237
Also by
132
Members
11,925
Popularity
#1,966
Rating
4.1
Reviews
433
ISBNs
371
Languages
6
Favorited
48
Touchstones
205

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