The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914-1967, I Dream a World

Front Cover
Oxford University Press, USA, Jan 10, 2002 - Biography & Autobiography - 576 pages
February 1, 2002 marks the 100th birthday of Langston Hughes. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary and prolific American writer. The second volume in this masterful biography finds Hughes rooting himself in Harlem, receiving stimulation from his rich cultural surroundings. Here he rethought his view of art and radicalism, and cultivated relationships with younger, more militant writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Amiri Bakara. Rampersad's Afterword to volume two looks further into his influence and how it expanded beyond the literary as a result of his love of jazz and blues, his opera and musical theater collaborations, and his participation in radio and television. In addition, Rempersad explores the controversial matter of Hughes's sexuality and the possibility that, despite a lack of clear evidence, Hughes was homosexual. Exhaustively researched in archival collections throughout the country, especially in the Langston Hughes papers at Yale University's Beinecke Library, and featuring fifty illustrations per volume, this anniversary edition will offer a new generation of readers entrance to the life and mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Still Here 1941
3
Jim Crows Last Stand 1941 to 1943
32
Simple Speaks His Mind 1943 to 1944
61
Third Degree 1944 to 1945
88
Street Scene 1945 to 1947
108
Heart on the Wall 1947 to 1948
128
On Solid Ground 1948 to 1950
146
In Warm Manure 1951 to 1953
189
Ask Your Mama 1960 to 1961
314
In Gospel Glory 1961 to 1963
341
Blues for Mister Backlash 1963 to 1965
364
Final Call 1965 to 1966
386
Do Nothing Till You Hear from Me 1966 to 1967
404
Afterword
426
Abbreviations
436
Notes
437

Out from Under 1953 to 1956
223
Making Hay 1957 to 1958
263
You Are the World 1958 to 1960
288
Acknowledgments
493
Index
499
Copyright

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About the author (2002)

Arnold Rampersad is Sara Hart Kimball Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. He is the author of Days of Grace: A Memoir with Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson: A Biography, and he edited Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. He is winner of the Biographers International Organization's 2012 BIO Award.