The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing AmericaFebruary 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. In young adulthood Hughes possessed a nomadic but dedicated spirit that led him from Mexico to Africa and the Soviet Union to Japan, and countless other stops around the globe. Associating with political activists, patrons, and fellow artists, and drawing inspiration from both Walt Whitman and the vibrant Afro-American culture, Hughes soon became the most original and revered of black poets. In the first volumes Afterword, Rampersad looks back at the significant early works Hughes produced, the genres he explored, and offers a new perspective on Hughess lasting literary influence. Exhaustively researched in archival collections throughout the country, especially in the Langston Hughes papers at Yale Universitys 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 centurys greatest artists. |
Contents
| 3 | |
| 23 | |
3 My People 1921 to 1923 | 50 |
4 On the Big Sea 1923 to 1924 | 73 |
5 We Have Tomorrow 1924 to 1926 | 99 |
6 A Lion at Lincoln 1926 to 1927 | 125 |
7 Godmother and Langston 1927 to 1930 | 156 |
8 Flight and Fall 1930 to 1931 | 182 |
11 Waiting on Roosevelt 1933 to 1935 | 276 |
12 Still Waiting on Roosevelt 1935 to 1937 | 306 |
13 Earthquake Weather 1937 to 1939 | 341 |
14 The Fall of a Titan 1939 to 1941 | 373 |
Afterword | 396 |
Abbreviations | 406 |
Notes | 407 |
Acknowledgments | 449 |
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The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America Arnold Rampersad Limited preview - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa Alain Locke ALLP American Amy Spingarn Arna Bontemps artist beautiful Big Sea Blanche Knopf called Carl Van Vechten Carmel Chicago Clark Claude McKay Cleveland colored communist Countee Cullen Crisis CVVP father friends Godmother Guillén Haiti Harlem Hotel Hughes's James Jessie Fauset Johnson Jones July June Kansas knew Langston Hughes later letter LH to Carl Lincoln lived Louise Thompson Louise Thompson Patterson Manhattan Mary Maxim Lieber Mexico Moscow mother MSRC Mulatto Negro never nigger night Noël Sullivan novel once perhaps play poems poet poetry published R. O. Mason race racial radical Scottsboro seemed sent sing song South story Street Sylvia Chen theater Thurman tour University Wallace Thurman wanted Weary Blues woman Wonder workers write wrote Yale York young Zora Neale Hurston