One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston
Hughes may be best known as a poet, but he was also a brilliant storyteller, blending
elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom.
Perhaps more than any other writer, Langston Hughes made the white America of the
1920s and 1930s aware of the Black culture thriving in its midst. Hughes's poetry and
fiction works are messages from that America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life,
cruelly accurate portrayals of Black and white collisions.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper,
with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon...
Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the most influential and acclaimed American writers of the twentieth century. A renowned poet from a young age, Hughes’ first collection of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published when he was just 24. He would go on to publish more than thirty-five books, including his award-winning debut novel, Not Without Laughter, and the short story collection, The Ways of White Folks. His widely-read journalism and nonfiction became important documents in the support and promotion of the civil rights movement.
Read moreJoshua Bennett is a poet and a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. He is the author of several books of poetry and criticism and has been published in The New York Times and The Paris Review. He is also the co-editor of Minor Notes, a Penguin Classics series dedicated to lesser known poets within the Black expressive tradition He lives in Massachusetts with his wife and son, Pam and August, and their family dog, Apollo 5.
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