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Langston Hughes
By Lee Bennett Hopkins
Hughes' poetry remains as vibrant and relevant today as it did when it was first written in the mid 20th century
"The poem ends, Soft as it begins ..."
- Langston Hughes
Few poets who have written for adults or children remain as beloved as Langston Hughes.
A wandering life
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, MO. His childhood was spent being shifted from one place to another, from relative to relative. His father, James Hughes, had studied law, but he was refused the right to take his bar examination. Angry and frustrated with Jim Crow society, he one day walked out of the house and left for Mexico.
After graduating from Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, young Langston headed to Mexico via train to find his father.
The ride sparked the poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," which he wrote on the back of an envelope. Printed in The Crisis, the journal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, this was Hughes' first poem to appear in print.
The recent volume, Langston's Train Ride by Robert Burleigh (Scholastic/ Orchard, 2004) captures the moment in 1921 when Hughes penned the verse. Since that date, his work has never been out of print.
A restless man, Hughes began to wander parts of the world working at odd jobs ranging from a dishwasher in a Parisian café to a busboy in Washington D.C.
After completing college in 1929, Langston moved to East 127th Street in Harlem, N.Y., where he lived until his death on May 22, 1967.
Ironically, despite his extraordinary literary output, Hughes lived in poverty for most of his life. He related to fellow-contemporary author/ poet Arna Bontemps that "Fame is lovely – but hard to eat!"
Bookshelf
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, first published in 1932 (Knopf), contains some of the finest 20th century verse ever written.
A reissue of the cassette The Dream Keeper…is now available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Students can hear how Hughes' poetry developed from specific experiences.
He talks about how a beloved woman's memory of slavery sparked "Aunt Sue's Stories," his belief that all people should treasure their dreams and became the inspiration of his famous poem "Dreams."
Lee Bennett Hopkins is a distinguished poet whose recent collections include Days to Celebrate (Greenwillow, 2005) and Oh No! Where Are My Pants? and Other Disasters (HarperCollins, 2005).
February, 2005, Vol.35, No.5
