Langston Hughes Biography

“Langston Hughes: Beyond The Music and The Rhythm of An Extraordinary Black Artist.” JazzMuzic 23 (2001): 35-39.

Langston Hughes is one the most renowned and respected authors of twentieth century America not simply one of the most respected African-American authors, though he is certainly this as well, but one of the most respected authors of the period overall. A large part of the respect and admiration that the man and his work have garnered is due to the richness an complexity of Hughes' writing, both his poetry and his prose and even his non-fictions. In almost all of his texts, Hughes manages at once to develop and explore the many intricacies and interactions of the human condition and specifically of the experience growing up and living as a black individual in a white-dominated and explicitly anti-Black society while at the same time, while at the same time rendering his human characters and their emotions in a simple, straightforward, and immensely accessible fashion. Reading the complexity behind the surface simplicity of his works is at once enjoyable and edifying.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up mainly in Lawrence, Kansas but also lived in Illinois, Ohio and Mexico. Constantly having to travel he wrote his poem that would make him famous, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Having different expectations his parents slit up resulting in him living with his maternal grandmother.

Hughes, Langston. "Mulatto," The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader, ed, David Levering Lewis. New York: Viking Penguin, 1994

Langston Hughes is regarded as one of the most significant American authors of the twentieth century. Foremost a poet, he was the first African-American to earn a living solely from his writings after he became established. Over a forty-year career beginning in the 1920s until his death in 1967, Hughes produced poetry, plays, novels, and a variety of nonfiction. He is perhaps best known for his creation of the fictional character, Jesse B. Semple, which first appeared in a Chicago Defender newspaper column in 1943. Hughes’ writings focused mainly on the lives of plain black people and show their beauty, wisdom, and strength to overcome social and economic injustice.

She moved Langston around often as a child in search for better work after her and Mr. Hughes divorced early in Langston’s childhood. James Nathaniel Hughes abandoned his family when Langston was very young. James Nathaniel Hughes was in search of leaving the United States in order to outrun the racism and civil rights issues occurring during the time period. Hughes’ father moved to Cuba at first, and then finally settled in Mexico City, Mexico. Hughes’ mother decided to move to Mexico City to reunite their family, but when they had arrived an earthquake had scared Hughes’ mother in wanting to move back to Kansas. Soon after being back in Kansas, Hughes’ mother decided to place Langston in the care of her mother. Langston then lived with his grandmother for a period of time. Langston’s grandmother, Mary, had a huge impact on Langston while he was growing up. Langston had resided with his grandmother for most of his childhood, and into his early teenage years. Langston wrote in his memoir that he remembered often sitting on his grandmother’s lap as a child and would listen to her tell him stories that would later be the fuel to his powerful vision over African Americans. Mary often told him stories of slaves who struggled for their freedom, and of abolitionists. These stories gave young Langston the vision for African Americans to be free and gave him a good outlook for his people that would become evident in his writings. Mary

Langston Hughes’ style of poetry renounced the classical style of poetry and sought out a more jazz and folk rhythm style. Most of Hughes’ poems were written during the Harlem Renaissance, named after the cultural activity African Americans participated in, such as: literature, music, art, theatre, and political thinking. William Blake, on the other hand, was a nonconformist who was associated with the leading radical thinkers of his day. Although, considered a lyric poet and a visionary, Blake’s poetry was not read by many, yet he still believed that his poetry could be understood by common people and was determined not to sacrifice his vision to become popular.

Langston Hughes is an extremely successful and well known black writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance (“Langston Hughes” 792). He is recognized for his poetry and like many other writers from the Harlem Renaissance, lived most of his life outside of Harlem (“Langston Hughes” 792). His personal experiences and opinions inspire his writing intricately. Unlike other writers of his time, Hughes expresses his discontent with black oppression and focuses on the hardships of his people. Hughes’ heartfelt concern for his people’s struggle evokes the reader’s emotion. His appreciation for black music and culture is evident in his work as well. Langston Hughes is a complex poet whose profound works provide insight into all aspects of black

Langston Hughes was one of the great writers of his time. He was named the “most renowned African American poet of the 20th century” (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to “explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).

The poem “Mother to Son” provides insight to the author’s viewpoints and religious beliefs during strenuous times for his race and family. Langston Hughes’ mother illustrates the tests she faces using various forms of figurative

"Hughes was fascinated with black music, tried his hand at writing lyrics, and was taken with the

Langston Hughes grew up at a time when young black men had few career options. As a result, Hughes saw a need for training and education in order to better their lives. His writing served as an energizing spark to the readers of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s and over the years into the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. During the Harlem Renaissance, musicians, painters, and writers used their creativity to encourage members of the black community to seek lives better than those in their ghetto neighborhood. As a young black man of the 1920’s, Langston Hughes inspired other black men and women to follow their dreams through his specific word choice and simple language in “Harlem,” a poem that delivers a motivating charge to action.

This paper examines the perspective of Langston Hughes and how his style of writing is. It looks at how several interrelated themes run through the poetry of Langston Hughes, all of which have to do with being black in America and surviving in spite of immense difficulties. Langston Hughes is one of the most influential writers because his style of work not only captured the situation of African Americans; it also grabbed the attention of other races with the use of literary elements and other stylistic qualities. Langston Hughes became well known for his way of interpreting music into his work of writing, which readers love and enjoy today.

The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary

Credited as being the most recognizable figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes played a vital role in the Modernist literary movement and the movement to revitalize African American culture in the early 20th century. Hughes’s poems reflect his personal struggle and the collective struggle of African Americans during this cultural revival.