Most Popular Books by Langston Hughes

A landmark of Harlem Renaissance fiction, Not Without Laughter by Langston Hughes is a moving and beautifully observed portrait of African American life in early twentieth-century America. Blending the clarity of realism with the emotional music of blues and spirituals, this powerful African American coming-of-age novel follows young Sandy Rogers as he navigates family, identity, race, and the search for belonging in a world marked by both hardship and hope. Set against the backdrop of African American cultural history, the novel explores generational conflict, community bonds, and the tension between tradition and ambition. Through vibrant characters and lyrical storytelling, Hughes captures the rhythms of everyday life-church gatherings, kitchen conversations, neighborhood gossip, and quiet acts of resilience that define a family''s strength. The result is a timeless narrative that resonates with readers drawn to historical literary fiction, Black family stories, and classic coming-of-age narratives grounded in cultural truth. Celebrated as an African American literary classic, Not Without Laughter is essential reading for anyone interested in the Harlem Renaissance, early twentieth-century African American fiction, and the development of modern American literature. Its themes of dignity, self-discovery, and perseverance make it a natural fit for libraries, classrooms, book clubs, and readers seeking stories that illuminate history through personal experience. Rich, compassionate, and deeply human, Not Without Laughter endures as one of the most important works of Black literature, offering a compelling portrait of growth and identity that continues to inspire new generations of readers.

"Reprinted 1976 by special arrangement"--T.p. verso.

Discover the power and joy of poetry in this simple, modern introduction to Langston Hughes, featuring an ode to spring and long-awaited new beginnings In this illustrated adaptation of a beloved Langston Hughes poem, a child delights as the world around him awakens from winter and comes to life with the long-awaited arrival of spring and new beginnings of all kinds.

Nearing the end of a distinguished literary career that spanned nearly fifty years, Langston Hughes took on the daunting task of writing the official history of the national Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Beginning with the social, political, and economic contexts that led to the founding of the NAACP in 1909 and ending with a summary of its targeted goals for 1963, Hughes attempted to write a history that would be comprehensive in scope and singular in its purpose of highlighting the ways in which the Association had a direct and positive influence on racial justice in the United States. Focusing on the individuals who had the greatest impact on the NAACP and the issues with which the organization was most concerned in its first fifty years of existence, Hughes produced the widely acclaimed Fight for Freedom, striking an exceptional balance between biography and cultural history. Long before the publication of Fight for Freedom, Hughes had begun writing nonfictional prose about these same issues as a regular columnist and essayist for the nation''s most influential African American publications, including the Chicago Defender and Crisis. A selection of these popular columns and other essays & mdash;which reveal the extent to which Hughes''s unique, varied, and sometimes Blues- tinged narrative voice shifted in tone over the course of his extensive career & mdash;is included in this volume. Hughes intersperses historical facts with compelling anecdotes that often frame subtly ironic commentaries on various themes. The result is history that provides a lens through which to view Hughes''s attitudes in the early 1960s toward the ways the NAACP addressed the vital social, cultural, political, and economic issues central to its agenda. Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights makes a unique contribution to the oeuvre of an African American writer whose full significance to American literature, history, and culture will continue to be defined well into the twenty-first century.

A gorgeously illustrated centennial of Langston Hughes'' first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, this picture book includes select poems paired with vibrant artwork by more than twenty talented Black illustrators, including award-winners Oge Mora, Frank Morrison, Janelle Washington, and more! Brought to new life by lively illustrations on every page, Melodies of The Weary Blues introduces Langston Hughes’ intimate reflections on the Black experience in America to young readers in a fresh and approachable way. Featuring poems like “Dream Variation,” “Winter Moon,” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Hughes’ still resonant words shine like never before for readers everywhere. Includes an introduction by the editor, Shamar Knight-Justice, Langston Hughes’ biography and timeline of life, and biographies of all the contributors.

Dramatic recitations by famed author Langston Hughes.

Between 1925 and 1967, Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps exchanged about 2,300 letters. Editor Charles H. Nichols has selected about 500 of the most interesting and significant within this book. These letters reveal the personalities of the writers, record significant literary activity or growth, present literary criticism, show the depth of the writers'' concept of their responsibilities to their readers, and record significant developments in race relations in the United States and abroad.

A collection of interviews, speeches, and essays by Langston Hughes. Let America Be America Again: Conversations with Langston Hughes is a record of a remarkable man talking. In texts ranging from early interviews in the 1920s, when he was a busboy and scribbling out poems on hotel napkins, to major speeches, such as his keynote address at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal, in 1966, Hughes''s words further amplify the international reputation he established over the course of five decades through more widely-published and well-known poems, stories, novels, and plays. In these interviews, speeches, and conversational essays, the writer referred to by admirers as the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race" and the "Dean of Black Letters" articulated some of his most powerful critiques of fascism, economic and racial oppression, and compromised democracy. It was also through these genres that Hughes spoke of the responsibilities of the Black artist, documented the essential contributions of Black people to literature, music, and theatre, and chronicled the substantial challenges that Black artists face in gaining recognition, fair pay, and professional advancement. And it was through these pieces, too, that Hughes built on his celebrated work in other literary genres to craft an original, tragic-comic persona--a Blues poet in exile, forever yearning for and coming back to a home, a nation, that nevertheless continues to disappoint and harm him. A global traveler, Hughes''s words, "Let America be America Again" were, throughout his career, always followed by a caveat: "America never was America to me."

A major hardcover compendium of poetry and fiction by the legendary Black American poet of the Harlem Renaissance One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes may be best known as a poet, but he was also a brilliant storyteller, blending elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom. Perhaps more than any other writer, Langston Hughes made the white America of the 1920s and 1930s aware of the Black culture thriving in its midst. Hughes''s poetry and fiction works are messages from that America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life, cruelly accurate portrayals of Black and white collisions. This Everyman''s Library compendium comprises Hughes''s debut poetry collection, The Weary Blues, which catapulted him into literary stardom at just twenty-four years old; his award-winning debut novel, Not Without Laughter, published in 1930 to critical raves; and his 1933 collection of short stories The Ways of White Folks, currently only available in Vintage Classics trade paperback. Everyman''s Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper, with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers, European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.

A pictorial history of the Negro in American entertainment.

Winner of the Coretta Scott King illustrator award, I, Too, Am America blends the poetic wisdom of Langston Hughes with visionary illustrations from Bryan Collier in this inspirational picture book that carries the promise of equality. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Langston Hughes was a courageous voice of his time, and his authentic call for equality still rings true today. Beautiful paintings from Barack Obama illustrator Bryan Collier accompany and reinvent the celebrated lines of the poem "I, Too," creating a breathtaking reminder to all Americans that we are united despite our differences. This picture book of Langston Hughes’s celebrated poem, "I, Too, Am America," is also a Common Core Text Exemplar for Poetry.

“Dream Variation,” one of Langston Hughes''s most celebrated poems, about the dream of a world free of discrimination and racial prejudice, is now a picture book stunningly illustrated by Daniel Miyares, the acclaimed creator of Float. To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done…. Langston Hughes''s inspiring and timeless message of pride, joy, and the dream of a better life is brilliantly and beautifully interpreted in Daniel Miyares''s gorgeous artwork. Follow one African-American boy through the course of his day as the harsh reality of segregation and racial prejudice comes into vivid focus. But the boy dreams of a different life—one full of freedom, hope, and wild possibility, where he can fling his arms wide in the face of the sun. Hughes''s powerful vision, brought joyously to life by Daniel Miyares, is as relevant—and necessary—today as when it was first written.

Langston Hughes is well known as a poet, playwright, novelist, social activist, communist sympathizer, and brilliant member of the Harlem Renaissance. He has been referred to as the "Dean of Black Letters" and the "poet low-rate of Harlem." But it was as a columnist for the famous African-American newspaper the Chicago Defender that Hughes chronicled the hopes and despair of his people. For twenty years, he wrote forcefully about international race relations, Jim Crow, the South, white supremacy, imperialism and fascism, segregation in the armed forces, the Soviet Union and communism, and African-American art and culture. None of the racial hypocrisies of American life escaped his searing, ironic prose. This is the first collection of Hughes''s nonfiction journalistic writings. For readers new to Hughes, it is an excellent introduction; for those familiar with him, it gives new insights into his poems and fiction.

Hughes''s last collection of poems commemorates the experience of Black Americans in a voice that no reader could fail to hear—the last testament of a great American writer who grappled fearlessly and artfully with the most compelling issues of his time. “Langston Hughes is a titanic figure in 20th-century American literature ... a powerful interpreter of the American experience.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer From the publication of his first book in 1926, Langston Hughes was America''s acknowledged poet of color. Here, Hughes''s voice—sometimes ironic, sometimes bitter, always powerful—is more pointed than ever before, as he explicitly addresses the racial politics of the sixties in such pieces as "Prime," "Motto," "Dream Deferred," "Frederick Douglas: 1817-1895," "Still Here," "Birmingham Sunday." " History," "Slave," "Warning," and "Daybreak in Alabama."

A teenager tries to steal the purse of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and is rebuked in a surprising fashion.