James Mercer Langston Hughes
was born on 1st February, 1902. He was an American poet, novelist, columnist,
social activist and play writer. Hughes is known for introducing the new form
of literary art called jazz poetry. His most recognized work “The Negro was in
Vogue” made him the leader of the Harlem Renaissance.
Childhood
Langston Hughes was born in
Joplin, Missouri, to mother Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and father James
Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern
small towns. Because of active racism still going in United States, the family
kept moving to places trying to escape it. Later, Hughes's father left his
family and divorced Carrie.
Education
Carrie remarried while
Hughes was in adolescence, and the new couple settled in Cleveland, Ohio; where
Langston Hughes completed his high school. He started giving more focus on
books, literature, writing stories and poems. During his high school, he used
to write for the school newspaper and edit the yearbook. Later, he began
writing short stories, poetry and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz
poetry, "When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was in high
school. Later, Hughes enrolled in Lincoln University, a historically black
university in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to carry ahead his writing
interests.
Career
His work was first
recognized in 1921, when "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", got published
in The Crisis; which became his signature poem. In 1923, Langston Hughes served
as a crewman aboard the S.S. Malone, traveling to West Africa and Europe.
Hughes worked at various odd jobs when in 1925, he quit the job and started
devoting his time to writing. For financial support he took up work at the
Wardman Park Hotel as busboy.
Some of his famous works
Langston Hughes tried to
depict the "low-life", the real lives, of blacks who were seen in the
lower social-economic strata. Depicting his criticism of divisions and biasing
based on skin color within the black community he wrote "The Negro Artist
and the Racial Mountain" in 1926.
In 1930, his first novel
“Not Without Laughter” won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature. The book
depicts a variety of struggles blacks face due to their race and class. In
1931, Langston Hughes started writing for “New York Suitcase Theater". In
1932, he contributed his part to produce a Soviet film on "Negro
Life". Hughes' first collection of short stories was published in 1934
with The Ways of White Folks.
At the End
Langston Hughes died at the
age of 65, on 22nd May, 1967, from complications after abdominal surgery,
related to prostate cancer. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in
the middle of the foyer in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture in Harlem. The design on the floor is an African Cosmo-gram entitled
Rivers. The title is taken from his poem "The Negro Speaks of
Rivers".
