Selected Letters of Langston Hughes

Resource Information

The work Selected Letters of Langston Hughes represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in George F. Johnson Memorial Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Selected Letters of Langston Hughes

Statement of responsibility

edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel ; with Christa Fratantoro

Creator

• Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967

Contributor

• Rampersad, Arnold
• Roessel, David E., (David Ernest), 1954-

Subject

• African American authors -- Correspondence
• Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence
• Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967 -- Correspondence

Genre

• Correspondence

Language

eng

Summary

This is the first comprehensive selection from the correspondence of the iconic and beloved Langston Hughes. It offers a life in letters that showcases his many struggles as well as his memorable achievements. Arranged by decade and linked by expert commentary, the volume guides us through Hughes's journey in all its aspects: personal, political, practical, and above a literary. His letters range from those written to family members, notably his father (who opposed Langstons literary ambitions), and to friends, fellow artists, critics, and readers who sought him out by mail. These figures include personalities such as Carl Van Vechten, Blanche Knopf, Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, Vachel Lindsay, Ezra Pound, Richard Wright, Kurt Weill, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Alice Walker, Amiri Baraka, and Muhammad Ali. The letters tell the story of a determined poet precociously finding his mature voice ; struggling to realize his literary goals in an environment generally hostile to blacks reaching out bravely to the young and challenging them to aspire beyond the bonds of segregation; using his artistic prestige to serve the disenfranchised and the cause of social justice; irrepressibly laughing at the world despite its quirks and humiliations. Venturing bravely on what he called the big sea of life, Hughes made his way forward always aware that his only hope of self-fulfillment and a sense of personal integrity lay in diligently pursuing his literary vocation. Hughes's voice in these pages, enhanced by photographs and quotations from his poetry, allows us to know him intimately and gives us an unusually rich picture of this generous, visionary, gratifyingly good man who was also a genius of modern American letters

Member of

• Correspondence., Selections.

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

• 818/.5209
• B

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

PS3515.U274

LC item number

Z48 2014

Literary form

non fiction