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LANGSTON HUGHES
 Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was one of the most original and versatile of 20th-century writers. Born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902, Hughes published his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in the NAACP magazine The Crisis in 1921. He studied at Columbia University from 1921 to 1922, but quit school to join the crew of a ship sailing to Africa. He eventually traveled through Italy, Holland, Spain and France, writing all the while. After his return to the United States, he worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C., where, in 1925, his literary skills were discovered after he left three of his poems beside the plate of American poet Vachel Lindsay. The following year he published his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, about Harlem life. Hughes wrote in many genres—including prose, drama, essays and journalism—but he is best known for his poetry, in which he disregarded classical forms in favor of the rhythms of blues and jazz and the dialect of African American speech that he heard around him. Hughes was called the Poet Laureate of Harlem and was a prominent figure during the Harlem Renaissance, which refers to the period from 1920 until about 1930. During this time, African American activists, writers, visual artists and musicians redefined African American culture and expression through an outburst of creative activity and social criticism of racial prejudice. Beginning in the 1930s, Hughes became increasingly active in social and political causes, particularly the plight of the poor and homeless black people who suffered during the Great Depression. In addition to using much of his poetry as a vehicle for social justice in the United States, he served as a correspondent for a Baltimore newspaper during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and traveled to the Soviet Union, Haiti and Japan. In the 1940s, Hughes wrote a newspaper column for the Chicago Defender in the voice of the character Simple (also called Jesse B. Semple), who expressed the thoughts of ordinary young black Americans. The character become famous and later figured in many of his short stories he would go on to write over the next several decades. Hughes wrote A Pictorial History of the Negro in America(1956), and the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro (1949) and The Book of Negro Folklore (1958; with Arna Bontemps). He also wrote numerous works for the stage, including lyrics for Street Scene, an opera with music by Kurt Weill. Black Nativity: A Gospel Song Play was written in 1961. Hughes died on May 22, 1967 at the age of 65 in a hospital in New York, still an active and productive writer, still respected by millions. |
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