Book Description
In these acrid and poignant stories, Hughes depicted black people colliding--sometimes humorously, more often tragically--with whites in the 1920s and '30s.
Customer Reviews:
A Must for any Langston Hughes Reader!.......2007-04-23
I'm not a short story person but I was a assigned this book for my Harlem Renaissance Class years ago at Rutgers. I just recently read his classic short story, "THank You, MAm" which by the way isn't in this book. I loved "Cora Unashamed," "Slave on the Block," "Home," Passing," others also are "A Good Job Gone," "A Rejuvenation Through Joy," "The Blues I'm Playing," "Red-Headed Baby," "Poor Little Black Fellow," "Little Dog," "Berry," "Mother and Child," "One Christmas Eve," and "Father and Son." Surprisingly Thank You, Mam was not included in this anthology of Hughes' short stories. This book should be used in the classroom. Short Stories are usually short, sweet, and capture something that we might miss. In this book, Hughes' observations are keen and certainly interesting about life in New York City and the uneasy relationship between races. We hope that life has changed for the better for people from all walks of life. I was particularly surprised by the whites' attitudes towards blacks like the patronization. Nobody likes to be patronized and treated as inferior.
Excellent Read.......2007-01-09
This book of short stories is my all time favorite. It is definitely a classic.
One of My Favorite Writers of All Time.......2006-03-21
major fan of both Langston Hughes and James Baldwin, I found this to be beautifully written. In this book there is humor, horror and everything else in between. For once, black culture and the point of view is truely captured in poetic splendor.
This book is such an important vehicle for anyone that wanders what it truely means to be Black in this world.
For centuries the view of Blacks have been hushed and limited and quite frankly meant to be unopened. If you ever wandered what it maybe like to be Black or why Blacks have the views that they do, simply read this book. Though there are some elements of satire, the stories speak truthfully and clearly in a non-offensive manner.
Brilliant observations on a sick society!.......2005-08-11
Hughes' style may lead some readers to think that this book is simplistic. But that is far from the case. His observations were poignant, heartwrenching at times and brutally honest. What was saddened me most was my own observation that in terms of sentiment and race relations, little has changed since this classic was written.
Langston Gets Tough!!!!.......2005-03-26
The thing that has always bothered me about certain admirers of Langston Hughes is the way, unintentional I guess, some seem to neuter him into being a kind of "minstrel man,"nonthreating to a certain audience because he doesn't challenge them to think to much about certain subjects. THE WAYS WHITE FOLKS definitely disproves this fallacy and proved Langston Hughes could show his teeth.
Without ever standing on a soapbox to shout and point his a finger, here in this collection of short stories Hughes express a range of moods from humorous and bitingly caustic to the tragic showing the various types of ways black and white American interacted with one another during the early part of the 20th century. There is the perennial favorite "CORA UNASHAMED", dealing with a black woman's loneliness and self-awaking in a predominantly white community, SLAVE ON THE BLOCK, dealing with "liberal minded" white dilettantes, "HOME", about a sickly black man who returns home from Europe only to face brutal prejudice, "REJUVENATION THROUGH JOY", a biting satire
that may (?) have been taking a small swipe at Jean Toomer who Hughes lost much respect for after he turned his back to his people to live as white. Then there are the stories "THE BLUES I'M PLAYING" with its hints of Langston's former patron Mrs. Mason, "A GOOD JOB" and "POOR LITTLE FELLOW", all kind of showing the various choices, sacrifices, and prejudice faced in its varied degrees to just get by. And, more shorts where Hughes pretty much presents the entire skin color spectrum of the black American community while recounting in a few stories the often cruel ways these colors came to be, "RED-HEADED BABY" and "FATHER AND SON", this latter about an arrogant black son by a white southern father who refuses to acknowledge him as kin and the resulting tragic consequences. "PASSING", my lease favorite because it was very disturbing, is nevertheless truthful to the affects of racism and self-hate on the soul (e.g. just look at certain male and female actors and singers who cater to prejudiced imaginary percentage points of race for success).
Certain stories in this collection represent a time gone by in race relations in this country. But, while the situation in race relations have change quite significantly, it has not changed completely. There are stories in the WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS that still hold a relevant truth today as the first time they were made public. Still, there exist a widespread denial of the complicated blood history of the larger black American community, only a specific few within the community being allowed the privilege to acknowledge their heritage and, often out of self-hate, contributing to the prejudiced stereotypes against the larger black American community whose blood is "equally" rich and the "same" in its diversity. Still, there exist those little touchs of bigotry today that one has to smile away and pretend doesn't exist and hurt or be branded the angry black and thus difficult,AND the psychologically damaging effects of viewing favorably light skin blacks over dark skin blacks.
Langston Hughes was a skilled and astute observer and this is why much of his work continues to be popular and stand the test of time beyond simple entertainment value. THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS is definitely deserves and gets a 5 star rating!!!
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful photos and a beautiful story
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The Sweet Flypaper of Life
Roy Decarava , and
Langston Hughes
Manufacturer: Howard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 088258152X |
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful photos and a beautiful story.......1999-10-16
This collaborative book between Hughes and De Carava is small and wonderful. The story by Hughes is a gentle tale of one woman's life in Harlem in 1955. It is richly illustrated with the beautiful photographs of Harlem family life by De Carava.
Book Description
Introduction by Arnold Rampersad.
Langston Hughes, born in 1902, came of age early in the 1920s. In The Big Sea he recounts those memorable years in the two great playgrounds of the decade--Harlem and Paris. In Paris he was a cook and waiter in nightclubs. He knew the musicians and dancers, the drunks and dope fiends. In Harlem he was a rising young poet--at the center of the "Harlem Renaissance."
Arnold Rampersad writes in his incisive new introduction to The Big Sea, an American classic: "This is American writing at its best--simpler than Hemingway; as simple and direct as that of another Missouri-born writer...Mark Twain."
Customer Reviews:
"Sometimes life is a ripe fruit too delicious for the taste of man.".......2007-09-30
Published when Hughes was 38, the subject of The Big Sea is the period of his life from 1902-1939. It covers a wide variety of episodes in Hughes' life, with key elements being his travels as a youth, his relationship to his father, and the Harlem Renaissance.
I knew his poetry, of course, from all those years as an English major. I have not had the occasion to read any of his prose, and decided to pick this up after reading the collected works of Nella Larsen.
There was a lot to engage with in The Big Sea. I particularly liked Hughes' description of the Harlem Renaissance. His tone when he talked about it was affectionate and wistful, but still acknowledged the limitations that it had as a lasting solution. There were many great stories ("never hit a woman") and fascinating details-- reproductions of the whist party invitations, for example.
I also really was interested in the way that Hughes discusses his father and the issue of the race. His father left the US (first to Cuba, then to Mexico) in order to avoid race prejudice. His father had nothing but scorn for people of color who stayed in the US and subjected themselves to the inevitabilities of race and class limitations. The anger that this self-imposed exile cost him comes out in his dealings with his son and the way in which he engages with the world around him.
At points, it is as though Hughes is meditating on all the different ways that people around him (including him) have used to address the race problem. It is not the most uplifting of sketches, since none of the various paths seem (according to Hughes) to be a good or lasting solution.
Well-written, interesting, and with many pointers to further reading.
Must read.......2007-05-12
I read this as an assignment in college and found it wonderfully painful in its realism and truth. A must read for every American, regardless of what ethic origin.
The journies of a Hero.......2006-07-17
"On a radio show, he (Hughes) defended the right of trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who had long faced the white world with a broad grin, to vent his racial anger."
Like Armstrong, Hughes also faced the same world with his broad smile. Throughout the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER, there in the texts of both autobiographies is the ever smiling Hughes. Other than the people he met and the foreign lands he visited---all making for great and entertaining reading--- very little is revealed about the man he was. His larger than life personae masked a man who was only 5'4 in stature, closeted gay
because being open would have meant a short career and ostracism, especially in the African American community who was a refuge from a racially hostile world and who Hughes loved with an unmatched passion back in his day, and, according to the late Gwendolyn Brooks who had known Hughes since the age of 16 wrote in a New York Times article that when Hughes was subjected to offense and icy treatment because of his race, he was capable of jagged anger - and vengeance, instant or retroactive. She has letters from him that reveal he could respond with real rage when he felt he was treated cruelly by other people.
Both autobiographies do a great job at documenting the world in Hughes' day. The most fascinating thing about the first book of his life is the Harlem Renaissance and the people who moved in it during its illustrious height. Till this day, the BIG SEA provides one of the best sources of this important period in American culture. Few people realized that if not for best friend Arna Bomtemps the autobiography may have never been written. Bontemps encouraged Hughes to write the book. Up to that time, few blacks, especially black males, had seen and done what Hughes managed to do. Plus, the book challenged stereotypes about black America in general. The challenge he had in writing the book was how to write for two audiences, white and black. Characteristically, Hughes did not pander to the white audience, "I do not hate `all' white people," nor did he distance himself from and sacrifice the racial pride his grandmother taught him to have for his people, who he primarily wrote for. In the second autobiography, Hughes is on the road again and much more time is given to his travels, especially in the then Soviet Union. Absent are his communist sympathies. Like many blacks of the day, socialism was preferable to segregation. Blatant is the unspoken critique that in the absence of capitalism, everyone man is "equal." As far as romance is concerned, scholars have noted Hughes'rather perfunctory and insincere rendezvous with the very few woman he talks about in these autobiographies. Quite understandably, Hughes attempts to pass himself off as having all the accoutrements of straight men. His situation with the over zealous Russian woman who he does not portray favorably in I WONDER AS I WANDER is interesting. She is portrayed as the Duboisian woman whose association with black men destroys them. Plus, Hughes did not favor interracial marriage so it is peculiar that he proffered the idea in the text of bring the Russian woman home as a wife as she wanted.
The above quote was from Volume 2 of Arnold Rampersad's biography of Hughes. What made Hughes' defense of Armstrong so intriguing is that Hughes also reveals much about himself and what lied behind the mask he wore. The readers of the BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER will not see the man behind the mask. They are largely presented surface, a fleeting glimpse of Hughes here and there. A scholar said to really understand Hughes, one must read Rampersad's two biographies. This scholar was partially right. But, don't dismiss these autobiographies! They are worth the read and are a enjoyable read. Time and interest permitting, do read LANGSTON HUGHES Vols. 1 and 2 by Rampersad for balance also read Faith Berry's LANGSTON HUGHES: BEFORE AND BEYOND HARLEM. Reading these latter biographies with the two autobiographies by Hughes, one will be presented the man Langston Hughes was: proudly African American, gay, brave, smart, ambitious, often very angry, and often lonely.
Hughes doesn't reveal much of himself, but his autobiographies are still 5 star ratings because like his work they continue to inspire and for everyone, especially young blacks in the inner city, let them know that they can overcome any obstacle in life so long as the desire and determination is there.
Great!!!!.......2005-09-27
Even though my book got lost in the mail, I was still able to get my money back. Thank you very much. I hope I have the chance to buy another book from you.
A wonderful memoir.......2003-12-04
Langston Hughes was a wonderful poet and story teller so it is not surprising that his autobiography/memoir is a joy to read. He tells the story of his life by giving us delightful episodes that each read like short stories. Each chapter has the structure of a short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Along the way, the reader has to be amazed at the texture and breadth of his life adventures. He lives for a short time in Mexico with his father, in several cities with his mother and other relatives, and then his wonderful sea going adventures in Europe, Africa, and also his stay in Paris. The reader also gets a first hand glimpse of what it was like to be "Negro" in America as well as in other places in the world. The writing is bright and energetic and the book is very difficult to put down. I highly recommend it to anyone who might be thinking about writing an autobiography or memoir.
Customer Reviews:
Slow to Warm.......2006-03-17
Book was interesting and provided a genuine sense of life for blacks during the early part of this century. It started slow but towards the middle of the book the pace picked up and I enjoyed it more.
Wonderful, heartbreaking yet redemptive novel.......2006-02-03
This is a fine novel written at a time of overt racial discrimation about members of a family surviving the best way they could. It does have great relevance to the 21st century because although much has changed (this was the pre-civil rights period), much still needs to be changed. This book should be required high school or college reading.
It was ok.......2006-01-26
Throughout the story you can see the talent of Langston Hughes. However, the subject was not unique or original for the current times. Granted, it may have been something special whe it was first written and published. We have all seen movies or read stories with the exact same plot; it's not worth reading if you're looking for a new story.
If you want to experience the beauty of Hughes' writing then you should give this novel a chance. It's a short read at 300 pages, but the poet's talent shines through in numerous passages.
This was my first exposure to the author and I will probably read more of his work along the way. Hopefully, there will be more unique story lines as I continue through his art.
Wow!.......2004-09-24
Such heart! I have read his poetry, but I had never read his prose. So smooth, so wonderful. I adore the characters. They followed me throughout the day. This is written so well, I really felt like I was right there. I also ran through a gamut of emotions while reading this. That's what a book should do - make me feel, make me think, make me wonder... This book did that for me.
A Must Read Classic.......2004-08-17
This book by Langston Hughes captures the life of the Midwest through the eyes of a young growing by in the early 1900's. I thought the portrayal of that life, the struggles and hardships, and the community love despite thiese things, was excellent. The writing was simple and provided a good flow to draw me into the story and to be placed in the time frame. This is a keeper for the library collection.
Average customer rating:
- The GREAT ONES usually start from HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
- Wonderful Illustrations
- Walking with Pride
- Heroes, who were just like Langston.
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Coming Home: From the Life of Langston Hughes
Floyd Cooper
Manufacturer: Putnam Juvenile
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ASIN: 0698116127 |
Book Description
Young Langston Hughes was a dreamer. He dreamed about heroes like Booker T. Washington, who was black just like him. When he heard the clackety-clack of train wheels, he dreamed about the places it had been. But most of all, he dreamed about having a happy home. And so, one day, he began turning those dreams into beautiful prose. As he did, he discovered where his home really was--in the words and rhythms of his poetry that reached people all over the world. The beloved Langston Hughes comes to life in a book for poets, dreamers, children and adults --anyone who has ever thought of what home means to them. Teachers looking for a good way to introduce youngsters to this prominent poet will find this book to be an excellent accompaniment to his work. --School Library Journal Like Hughes' poetry, the power of Cooper's story is that it confronts sadness even as it transcends it. --Booklist His text is as inviting as his illustrations. --The New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
The GREAT ONES usually start from HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.......2005-03-05
Floyd Cooper's book is the perfect introduction to the early life of one of America's literary giants. This biography covers so much ground, with historical references, as well as stressing the importance of family, that the book is an asset to teach different subject areas.
Smaller children can relate to the simple narrative, while older readers can make connections between the young "dreamer" and the works for which he would be later known.
The book could fit easily in the library of both an elementary or high school.
Wonderful Illustrations.......2001-12-03
The watercolor illustrations employed represent the setting perfectly, regardless if the point in the story was that of a rural Kansas, Kansas City street life, and Mexican village. What wonderful impressionistic artwork! There seems to be an inner light in the faces of each person represented in the illustrations.
The action and music portrayed in the text, carries over into the illustrations. The book's illustrations show movement and action. A sense of happiness or loneliness is conveyed through the watercolor paintings. They are very explicit in showing emotion. Overall, text and illustrations, lend this to being one of the best biographical books for young children.
Walking with Pride.......2001-06-06
This story is so moving. Showing hardships, love, and finding acceptance.It tells of an Afician child learning about his history and walking tall as a man. It was very moving, the pictures were soft and had a texture of warmth. I would highly recommend it for reading.
Heroes, who were just like Langston........2000-10-14
I thouroughly enjoyed this book. I didn't know much about Langston Hughes before I had read it. I think I understand him a little better after reading it. What attracted me the most was finding a book about an African American boy who learned his own family history and could feel proud of it. I guess the following quote sums it up "Almost always, his grandma told stories of heroes. Heroes who were black, just like Langston." I am volunteering in an inner city middle school. The kids I tutor do not read anywhere near their grade level. I think they might be able to read this book, and still enjoy it. It's not a baby book, although, I suppose a young child might enjoy it, too. I also like the warm and colorful pictures.
Average customer rating:
- An Excellent Read
- Passionate, cruel, Honey-lipped, syphilitic
- Rampersad at his best!!
- A WONDERFUL BOOK!
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The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume I: 1902-1941, I, Too, Sing America (Life of Langston Hughes, 1902-1941)
Arnold Rampersad
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0195146425 |
Amazon.com
Rampersad, one of our foremost African-American scholars, is an apt biographer for Hughes (1902-67), our greatest black poet. I, Too, Sing America (volume 1) covers the years during which Hughes produced his best work and was most politically active; I Dream a World (volume 2) chronicles his artistic decline due to overwork in= response to perpetual financial difficulties. Both volumes are psychologically astute, critically penetrating and masterful in their intermingling of Hughes' story with a chronicle of the enormous changes that took place in black America during his lifetime.
Book Description
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. 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 volume's Afterword, Rampersad looks back at the significant early works Hughes produced, the genres he explored, and offers a new perspective on Hughes's lasting literary influence. 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.
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Read.......2005-04-06
Long before the advent of the 1960's motto of black pride and black beauty, there was Langston Hughes who championed and celebrated black pride and black beauty, both African and black American, at the height racial inequality in the United States.
The two definitive biographies of Langston Hughes are written by Faith Berry, LANGSTON HUGHES: BEFORE AND BEYOND HARLEM, and, the two by Arnold Rampersad's, THE LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES VOLS. 1 AND 2. For those able to do it, I would recommend reading Berry's biography first and then DEFINITLY follow it by reading Rampersad two exquisite biographies of Hughes. Reading the two is the only real way to get a complete and accurate picture of Langston Hughes. Both books briefly address Hughes family background which isn't unique to him alone in the black American community as those non-persons of African decent on the outside repeatedly fail to understand. Both books address Hughes' humanity despite of the racism he faced as an extremely confident and proud African-American. Both acknowledge Hughes dislike of those blacks like Toomer ashamed of being black and their African heritage. Both reveal his living through all the moments in early 20th century American history like the Harlem Renaissance and meeting and befriending such figures as Dubois and facing McCarthy on charges of communism while punctuated moments of his life with wanderlust in world travels. Both books address the obstacles and triumphs he faced as being only the second black American to earn a living by writing , the first being Paul Lawrence Dunbar who was also Hughes idol and influence alongside Whitman and Sandburg. Both books take care to explain how Hughes relationships with his parents and grandmother may have shadowed his other relationships in terms of his race pride and the half hearted and insincere assignations with women he was linked to.
Where the two books differ is in discussing Hughes being gay. Berry appears unbridled by prejudice in acknowledging use as gay. Rampersad, a conservative black scholar and now part executor of the Hughes estate, is too eagerly fulsome in his attempts to deny Hughes being gay along with the coded references Hughes used to describe his affections for black men in poems which are similar to those used by Whitman in describing his same sex interest. This dangerously borders the homophobic line. (** READ the recent appendix in Rampersad biography where he rightfully takes issue with being called homophobic by his critics.**) This has been the chief criticism by many of Rampersad two biographies of Hughes. The great irony is that Rampersad actually confirms Hughes being gay by indicating the price Hughes would have paid if he was openly identified as gay at the wrong time in history (even in some circles of the black community today for that matter). Plus, in volume 2 of the LIFE OF HUGHES, Rampersad is less virulent in denying Hughes being gay and pretty much comes close to acknowledging him being gay but holds back for reasons of
his own.
Moreover, Berry discusses Hughes in a straight foreword manner. Rampersad biography is almost lyrical in its historical documentation of Hughes life like a number of biographies being written these days by certain scholars. Rampersad goes into great psychological analysis of Hughes and barring certain before mentioned instances gets it right.
Passionate, cruel, Honey-lipped, syphilitic.......2004-10-22
"'The Africans looked at me and would not believe I was a Negro': ...
`You - white man'," they said. Repudiating the idea that he was not one of them,
Hughes asserted "the unity of blacks everywhere." Hughes' choice to embrace
his African-American heritage is a major theme of Rampersad's biography.
Hughes rejected his father's path and the chance to pass, to escape prejudice
and win easy acceptance as a member of Mexican society. Poetic inspiration
came from Harlem, from Jazz, and from anger at prejudice. Despite, or because of
its format, with chapters divided by years, this book made riveting summer reading.
Along the way it introduced me to wonderful poetry in the context of the life:
-----
Mercedes is a jungle-lily in a death house.
Mercedes is a doomed star.
Mercedes is a charnel rose. ... ----
AND:
Passionate, cruel,
Honey-lipped, syphilitic -
That is the South.
And I, who am black, would love her
But she spits in my face . . .
Rampersad at his best!!.......2004-09-28
This is the most complete writing on Hughes' life. Beautifully written yet very thorough. Arnold Rampersad is probably the most talented biographer alive.
A WONDERFUL BOOK!.......2000-04-27
I thought this was a very interesting book. It is VERY well written, I recomend it!
Average customer rating:
- A Nice Collection of Short Stories!
- The Best of The Best
- "The Best Short Stories by Black Writers" is a #1 classic!
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The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology
James Baldwin ,
Gwendolyn Brooks ,
Paul Laurence Dunbar ,
Ralph Ellison ,
Zora Neale Hurston ,
Alice Walker ,
Richard Wright ,
Frank Yerby , and
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Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
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The Short Stories of Langston Hughes
ASIN: 0316380318 |
Customer Reviews:
A Nice Collection of Short Stories!.......2007-04-20
Langston Hughes provides an introduction into this selected anthology of short stories by prominent African American writers like Langston Hughes' himself with his classic short story, "Thank You, Mam." We also have a short story by poet Gwendolyn Brooks and dancer/choreographer Katherine Dunham. There are the traditional authors like Zora Neale Huston, James Baldwin, Charles Chesnutt, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ralph Ellison, Ernest J. Gaines, Jean Toomer, and Richard Wright only to name a few. It's still a great anthology of assorted stories about African American life in America from the South to Chicago and New York.
The Best of The Best.......2002-12-15
This book is a collection of short stories that was put together by the great Harlem Renaissance writer, Langston Hughes. Some authors whose works are also featured in the book are Richard Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alice Walker. These stories are fun to read and they speak about the current issues that Black America was facing during the time period. This book is for anyone who is trying to better understand black thought during the 20th century.
"The Best Short Stories by Black Writers" is a #1 classic!.......2000-06-10
This book is an excellent example of reality. In each short story, there is some kind of relivance of growing up in a nation filled with crime, love, kindenss, hardships, and friendships. The writers express themselves so wonderfully, vivid pictures of the events are played in my head. It keeps middle-school children very attentive, mainly because they can easily relate to the troubles of growing up today. Teens can feel a sense of comfort in this book because they know they are not alone. This book contains collections by some of the best authors in the world. It really makes the african-american culture shine to where all cultures will enjoy!
Average customer rating:
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The Life of Langston Hughes: 2-Volume Set
Arnold Rampersad
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0195219368 |
Book Description
This two-volume biography has been universally acclaimed as the definitive life of the leading light of the Harlem Renaissance.
Amazon.com
Rampersad, one of our foremost African-American scholars, is an apt biographer for Hughes (1902-67), our greatest black poet. I, Too, Sing America (volume 1) covers the years during which Hughes produced his best work and was most politically active; Dream a World (volume 2) chronicles his artistic decline due to overwork in= response to perpetual financial difficulties. Both volumes are psychologically astute, critically penetrating and masterful in their intermingling of Hughes' story with a chronicle of the enormous changes that took place in black America during his lifetime.
Book Description
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.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Most Creative Minds to Grace the planet.......2005-10-17
Langston Hughes was a Poets Poet.he had words that were uplifting that took you to another time&Place.Arnold Rampersad does a great job of telling the story of Langston Hughes&showcasing the Greatness of His Writings.Langston Hughes was ahead of time&Very Gifted African-American Writer.He left behind Ground-Breaking work that still speaks volumes to this day.
Forever A Proud & Unblemished Icon!.......2005-05-11
Arnold Rampersad's LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES Volume 2 retains much of Hughes' evident black pride that is inescapable no matter the type of biography and critical analysis done on him and his body of work. Hughes wrote about many other things during his lifetime, but he mostly celebrated his African American culture without shame or apology.
Volume 2 picks up where the first left off. Langston Hughes is at the crossroads of a lived life. His career as a writer has stalled a bit, he has becomes disillusioned by the predominantely white left who rufuses to understand fully and acknowledge the plight of the black American, and he is ill. Eventually, his career begins to get back on track and Rampersad takes the reader along with Hughes through the rest of his life to his death in 1967. Langston reaches out to the rest of the world through his love for his fellow black Americans and their stories and concerns. He faces the McCarthy hearings successfully but with a slight change from the politcal rhetoric expressed so openly in the 1930's where he had merged racial pride with a radical socialism to insure that the left could not
exclude blacks from the agenda. He witnesses the rise of a new generation of black writers, some who pleased him and others who did not, some who loved and respected him and others who did not. He challeged them to be proud of their black American heritage in their writing but also to be objective in their evaluations. He felt the sting of some of these young black writers who felt that he was out of touch and not angry enough. And, he witnessed the return of appreciation from the outside world for his body of work and humanity. Despite a general dislike he held for white people, some wasn't as liked by him as they believed themselves to be, it never materialized into open hate as it did with many in the Black Power Movement. Rampersad provides the best example of this by recounting a moment of outright rage in Hughes where he raises his voice to express his frustration and anger toward white folks, "benevolent anger" as opposed to the "malignant anger" of many in the Black Power Movement. Hughe fully understood the error of blanketing all white people as the same in prejudice.
Arnold Rampersad depth of exhaustive research is evident in the facts he uncovers in Hughes's complicated character. And, some readers will be surprised by what they will read such as his understanding of the short comings of integration where African Americans would to a large degree abandon their own infrastructure instead of building on it to be more secure without self-segregation and imposed segregation from the outside. Rampersad presents Hughes as the human being with foibles and not just a mythic icon of African American and American literature in general. Perhaps willingly to some degree to keep money in the bank as he "sharecropped" his way through his long career, the reader will definitely come away with the knowledged that Hughes was a famous African American of his day being exploited, again to a degree, by the larger community. This is very evident in some of the working situations Hughes would have outside the black community.
Volume 2 is free of much of the rheteric that came dangerously close to blatent homophobia in Volume 1. Rampersad doesn't come out and declare Hughes as gay, but does make the surprising admission that Hughes had a preference for black men like the late Gilbert Price, and, especially dark skinned black men in his life as well as work. This dissonance between not wanting to identify Hughes as gay and Hughes's very evident preference for black men as discovered by Rampersad during his exhaustive research is pandemic among certain scholars who believe sexuality has no bearing on creativity, at lease when it comes to certain icons as Hughes is to black America. But, Rampersad isn't a homophobe and it is unfair to cast him as one. Rampersad is to be applauded for this admission that he could have conveniently suppressed but chose not to do. Kudos!!!! Rampersad comes across as wanting to declare Hughes as gay, but holds back allowing the reader to read the obvious between the lines by patently stating Hughes primary interest for other black men. Rampersad does make references to the women Hughes was only "friendly" with without the slighthest romantic interest, Hughes even going out of his way make it clear that he was not interested in them romantically. This can be attributed to the condition in the black communty where black gay men are often required to "pass" as straight (as done to the ultimate degree by fellow black gay members of the Harlem Renaissance: Countee Cullen, Wallace Thurman, and Richard Bruce Nugent).
To me, Langston Hughes was and is a hero made to order! Hughes icon status still burns bright, beautifully, and unblemished for me and his other admirers regardless of any shortcomings and prejudices outside the love for his people.
A timeless piecework of art.......2000-10-11
This book has 425 pages in. It is wonderful and full of energy. It starts with one of Hughes poems and leads you down the ailes. The book is interesting, to the point and gives you enough information to find out more about how great Hughes is. I loved reading it and it gives you so much information to help you fully get to know Mr. Hughes. It is long but worth reading every page of it. I highly recommend reading this book.
Book Description
Mule Bone is the only collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, two stars of the Harlem Renaissance, and it holds an unparalleled place in the annals of African-American theater. Set in Eatonville, Florida--Hurston's hometown and the inspiration for much of her fiction--this energetic and often farcical play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between them. Overcome by jealousy, Jim hits Dave with a mule bone and hilarity follows chaos as the town splits into two factions: the Methodists, who want to pardon Jim; and the Baptists, who wish to banish him for his crime.
Included in this edition is the fascinating account of the Mule Bone copyright dispute between Hurston and Hughes that ended their friendship and prevented the play from being performed until its debut production at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in 1991--sixty years after it was written. Also included is "The Bone of Contention," Hurston's short story on which the play was based; personal and often heated correspondence between the authors; and critical essays that illuminate the play and the dazzling period that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.
Customer Reviews:
Dramatizing Folklore.......2006-05-25
We are fortunate that this play was finally produced well over 50 years after it was written. Hurston and Hughes wrote an interesting play that needs a bit of fine tuning in order to be a truly great play. If they had been able to stage this production in the 1930s, the play could have really changed the ways that African-American culture is expressed through musical comedy. One of their great contributions is their use of actual stories and traditional songs from African-American folklore in this play, and the collective ear of Hurston and Hughes in presenting the voices of black people really creates an authentic sound to the dialogue. Unfortunately, disputes between Hurston and Hughes kept them from staging the play, an ironic development since the play is a satiric look at factionalism within a small community. With historical hindsight, this play adds to our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and the work of two great writers. It's also very much worth reading in relation to Hurston's other writing, especially _Mules and Men_.
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