The Life of a True Writer
“I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go
if you really want to go” (Hughes).Hughes was a very interesting writer because he was able to
appeal to a very wide audience. Hughes was able to involve many different cultures and ideas in
his writing which allowed for people all around the world to love his writing.
Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. When Hughes was
young, his parents divorced from each other and his father moved to Mexico. He lived with his
grandmother until he was 13. He then moved to Lincoln, Illinois with his mother and her
husband. It was here where he started writing poetry. After that, the family settled in
Cleveland, Ohio.
After Hughes graduated from high school, he spent a year in Mexico before attending
the University of Colombia in New York City. While in New York he had odd jobs such as
assistant cook, launderer, and busboy. He also traveled to Europe and Asia working as a
seaman. He then moved to Washington D.C. in 1924. Hughes brought a very colorful
background to his writing. By the time he was in college, he had already been to 6 different
American cities. He had already been a truck farmer, waiter, college graduate, and a doorman
at a nightclub in Paris, and had visited Mexico, The Azores, the Canary Islands, Holland, France,
and Italy by the time his first book was published.
Hughes’s first book of poetry was called The Weary Blues and was published in 1926.
Then he graduated from college three years later at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. A year
later, he wrote the novel Not Without Laughter and won the Harmon gold medal for literature
In 1930. Hughes’s primary influences were Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt
Whitman. Unfortunately, much of Hughes’s early work was deprecated by black readers
because they thought he was writing about an unattractive view of black life. In his his
autobiography, The Big Sea, Hughes commented:
“Fine Clothes to the Jew was well received by the literary magazines and the white press,
but the Negro critics did not like it at all... The Chicago Whip characterized me as 'the
poet low-rate of Harlem.' Others called the book a disgrace to the race, a return to the
dialect tradition, and a parading of all our racial defects before the public. . . . “(Hughes).
Even through all of the criticism of his writing, Hughes still managed to, more than any other
black poet or writer, record the frustrations of black life. Although Hughes had trouble with
both black and white critics, he was the first black American to earn his living only from his
writing and public lectures. Part of the reason he was able to do this was from the acceptance
and love he received from average black people.
Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New
York City. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem has been given
landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been
renamed “Langston Hughes Place.” In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work,
Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless stories. He will be remembered as one of the great
poets to come out of the Harlem Renaissance. His achievements helped pave the way for other
black writers. He was able to involve many different cultures in his writing, which allowed for
people all around the world to love his work. This is why Hughes was one of the greatest writer
to come out of that time period.
Works Cited
"Hughes's Life and Career--by Arnold Rampersad." Hughes's Life and Career--by
Arnold Rampersad. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.
"Langston Hughes." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation. Web. 26 Apr. 2014.
"Langston Hughes." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
"Langston Hughes." LitFinder Contemporary Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2007.
LitFinder for Schools. Web. 9 June 2014.