Langston Hughes
(1902-1967)
Writer, editor, lecturer
Langston Hughes achieved fame as a poet during the
burgeoning of the arts known as the Harlem Renaissance, but those
who label him "a Harlem Renaissance poet" have restricted his fame
to only one genre and decade. In addition to his work as a poet,
Hughes was a novelist, columnist, playwright, and essayist, and
though he is most closely associated with Harlem, his world travels
influenced his writing in a profound way. Langston Hughes followed
the example of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of his early poetic
influences, to become the second African American to earn a living
as a writer. His long and distinguished career produced volumes of
diverse genres and inspired the work of countless other African
American writers.
Although his youth was marked with transition,
Hughes extracted meaning from the places and people whence he came.
The search for employment led his mother and step-father, Homer
Clark, to move several times. Hughes moved often between the
households of his grandmother, his mother, and other surrogate
parents. One of his essays claims that he has slept in "Ten Thousand
Beds." Growing up in the Midwest (Lawrence, Kansas; Topeka, Kansas;
Lincoln, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio), young Hughes learned the blues
and spirituals. He would subsequently weave these musical elements
into his own poetry and fiction.
In a Cleveland, Ohio, high school, Hughes was
designated "class poet" and there he published his first short
stories. He became friends with some white classmates, yet he also
suffered racial insult at the hands of other whites. He learned
first-hand to distinguish "decent" from "reactionary" white folks,
distinctions he would reiterate in his book Not Without
Laughter and in his "Here to Yonder" columns in The Chicago
Defender. Seeking some consolation and continuity in the midst
of the myriad relocations of his youth, he grew to love books. His
love of reading developed into a desire to write as he sought to
replicate the powerful impact other writers from many cultures had
made upon him. In his writing, Hughes accomplished an important
feat. While others wallowed in self-revelation as a balm for their
loneliness, Hughes often transformed his own agonies into the
sufferings endured by the collective race and sometimes all of
humankind.
Entire
Article |
