LITERARY FIGURE LANGSTON HUGHES

Langston Hughes

Alton L. Mickle

LIB 316

Mrs. Amy Hartmann

26 January 2009

Literary Figure Langston Hughes

Introduction

Among the most prolific of American writers, Langston Hughes gained international attention and acclaim in nearly every genre of writing, including poetry, the short story, drama, the novel, history, autobiography, journalistic prose, works for children and adolescents, the libretto, and song lyrics. Although Hughes is best known as a poet, he generated some of his most powerful critiques of economic and racial exploitation and oppression through the genre of the essay. It was also the essay as a literary form that allowed Hughes to document the essential contributions of African Americans to U. S. literature, music, film, and theater and to chronicle the immense difficulties that black artists faced in gaining recognition, fair remuneration, and professional advancement for these contributions. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to Carrie Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes.

When examining the career of Langston Hughes and influence of his personal experience on corpus of his work, critics turn first to the nearly six hundred poems he composed during his prolific career that spanned half a century, from the 1920s to his death in 1967.

Statement of the Issue to be Investigated

Langston Hughes's poetry receives the greatest attention, and while his position as a leader in the Harlem Renaissance rests primarily on his reputation as a poet, his prose writings, in the form of essays, short stories, novels, and autobiograhical renderings, have also merited serious academic attention.

Literature Review

Though most examinations of Hughes focus on his reputation as a literary artist, he was also a commercial writer. He made his living through commercial freelance writing, the sale and royalties of his prose works, and the occasional lecture honoraria. Edward J. Mullen makes the case convincingly that Hughes embarked on a literary career because of the success of his poems in the 1920s. During the 1930s, he turned to prose and drama to make his living. Although Hughes wrote for newspapers--and the birth of Jesse B. Simple on the pages of the Chicago Defender is well documented--he was sustained primarily by his output of freelance essays, speaking engagement, and other contract work, in addition to the supplemental income provided by his patrons and friends. (Nichols, Charles H., ed. Arna Bontemps 1980)

As a teenager, Langston had to contend with more family moves. In 1914, he was taken first to Lincoln, Illinois, where his mother remarried. Later, he moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he was lucky enough to remain for all four years of high school. While he was yet to have any clearly defined literary ambition, he was most definitely an alive and aware student. He began to take an active interest in politics and looked for opportunities to hear the most important speakers and lecturers of the day. A teacher, Ethel Weimer, introduced him to the work of the "Chicago School" of poetry, especially that of Vachel Lindsay and Carl Sandburg. These new poets were known ...