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Summary
Summary
A complete anthology of the poetry of Langston Hughes presents 860 poems that capture the rhythms, emotions, cultural significance, and political awareness of African-American life, from his earliest works to his final collection.
Author Notes
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 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)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
At last Hughes has gotten his first collected edition; it is overdue. The editors have attempted to collect every poem (860 in all) published by the writer in his lifetime, and have also provided a brief but informative introduction, a detailed chronology and extensive textual notes that include the original date and place of publication for each poem. In fact, this edition corrects the many errors and omissions of the standard Hughes bibliography, and the editors plan to update the text as more unpublished work surfaces. Although Hughes is best known for his poems celebrating African African life, he was also a passionately political poet who paid dearly for his communist affiliations and radical views. The chronological arrangement of the poems allows the reader to follow the course of Hughes's career-long political engagement, though probably Hughes will mainly be read for the clarity of his language, his wise humor and his insight into the human condition. BOMC selection. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
/*STARRED REVIEW*/ In an early poem titled "Formula," Hughes (1902-67) mocks the belief that poetry should be about "lofty things." For this revolutionary African American poet, poetry had to be about "earthly pain." This poem also prefigures the central controversy of Hughes' literary career: he was celebrated as the poet laureate of Americans of African descent just as often as he was castigated for being trite and simplistic. In their succinct and informative introduction to this definitive and invaluable collection, Hughes biographer Rampersad and modern American poetry expert Roessel don't deny the fact that Hughes' newspaper work has been described as doggerel, but the 860 poems gathered here soar far above such nitpicking. All are published works, and all are exceptional. Hughes was a "democratic" poet who wanted his work to be accessible in both subject matter and style, so he wrote poems charged with the immediacy of life and the rhythm of speech and song. Influenced by the Bible, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Walt Whitman, Hughes' aesthetics were based on African American music, especially the plaintive pulse of the blues and the swoops and growls of jazz. Always a man of his times, Hughes wrote about southern violence, Harlem street life, poverty, prejudice, hunger, hopelessness, and love. Many of his poems are portraits of people whose lives are impacted by racism and sexual conflicts. During the 1930s, Hughes' poems took on a more international and politically radical tone; it was during this decade that Hughes acquired a damaging and inaccurate reputation for being a Communist. In spite of being condemned by critics on both the Left and the Right, Hughes stayed true to his muse, chronicling the black American experience and contrasting the beauty of the soul with the loathsomeness of circumstance. (Reviewed October 1, 1994)0679426310Donna Seaman
Library Journal Review
Far more comprehensive than other collections of Hughes's poetry, this work was put together with the assistance of noted Hughes biographer Rampersad. [Reviewed on p. 80.] (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Juke Box Love Song I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you, Take the neon lights and make a crown, Take the Lenox Avenue busses, Taxis, subways, And for your love song tone their rumble down. Take Harlem's heartbeat, Make a drumbeat, Put it on a record, let it whirl, And while we listen to it play, Dance with you till day-- Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl. From the Trade Paperback edition. Excerpted from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 3 |
| A Chronology of the Life of Langston Hughes | p. 8 |
| The Poems of Langston Hughes | |
| Poems 1921-1930 | p. 21 |
| Poems 1931-1940 | p. 133 |
| Poems 1941-1950 | p. 223 |
| Poems 1951-1960 | p. 377 |
| Poems 1961-1967 | p. 471 |
| Appendix 1 Poems Circulated by the Associated Negro Press | p. 563 |
| Appendix 2 Poetry for Children | p. 595 |
| Appendix 3 Additional Poems | p. 611 |
| Notes to the Poems | p. 619 |
| Index of First Lines | p. 697 |
| Index of Titles | p. 707 |