The Book of Negro Folklore by Langston Hughes

He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in his book-length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred (Holt, 1951). Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, (Knopf, 1930) won the Harmon gold medal for literature. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. Hughes’s first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, (Knopf, 1926) was published by Alfred A. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D. He also travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman.

During this time, he held odd jobs such as assistant cook, launderer, and busboy. After graduating from high school, he spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University in New York City.

It was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. His parents divorced when he was a young child, and his father moved to Mexico. James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri.

The Book of Negro Folklore by Langston Hughes