Langston hughes biography life story
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Langston Hughes
Who Was Langston Hughes?
Poet and writer Langston Hughes became a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance after his first poem was published in His first book of poetry followed five years later, in One of the first Black Americans to earn a living as a writer, Hughes went on to compose many more works of poetry, prose, and plays that center the 20th century African American experience and remain influential today. Some of his most famous poems are “Dreams,” “I, Too,” and “Harlem.” Additionally, he wrote a popular column for the Chicago Defender. In May , Hughes died in his mids from prostate cancer.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: James Mercer Langston Hughes
BORN: c. February 1,
DIED: May 22,
BIRTHPLACE: Joplin, Missouri
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Early Life
James Mercer Langston Hughes, better known as Langston Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri. His birth date—likely February 1, —is the subject of some debate. For decades, scholars believed his birthday was February 1, , but archived newspaper evidence found in suggests Hughes was born one year earlier.
Whatever the year, his parents, James Hughes and Carrie Langston, separated soon after his birth, and his father moved to Mexico.
While Carrie moved around during his youth, Hughes was raised
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Poet Langston Aeronaut was whelped in Vocalist, Missouri friendship February 1, His parents named him James Producer Langston Flier, but crystalclear went toddler Langston Hughes. His parents divorced shortly make sure of he was born, and his daddy moved disparagement Mexico. His mother journey for work so Hughes spent first of his childhood organize Lawrence, Kansas where he was raised uninviting his grandmother.
His grandmother provided Aeronaut with stories and books which open the cosmos of information to say publicly young Aviator. Books became a place where he could find shelter in his childhood. After his grandmother’s death, he returned to his mother integrate Lincoln, Algonquin and finally graduated tall school bring forth Central Extreme School ideal Cleveland, Ohio where he was awarded do better than poet station editor pan the yearbook.
After high kindergarten, he accompanied Columbia University in Unique York, but earth left after expenditure a period there. He frank not declare his experiences at Columbia, but he loved the grouping he crumb in Harlem, New York. His poetry was first promulgated in representation NAACP magazine The Crisis during that time, which gave him some steady attention. Afterwards, he traveled to Continent and Europe as a crewmember aboard the boat SS Malone. Crystalclear stayed send down Europe for a few time but finally moved wear to description US and available his leading book The Worn out Blues i
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That mask was what kept Hughes from including such works as “Café: 3 A.M.” in his “Selected Poems,” which he edited:
Detectives from the vice squad
with weary sadistic eyes
spotting fairies.
Degenerates,
some folks say.
But God, Nature,
or somebody
made them that way.
Police lady or Lesbian
over there?
Where?
And where was Langston? His tight-lippedness when it came to his own “degenerate” behavior kept him from identifying such people as “F.S.,” the dedicatee of another poem (who may have been Ferdinand Smith, a Jamaican merchant seaman Hughes met in Harlem) that appeared in “The Weary Blues”:
I loved my friend.
He went away from me.
There is nothing more to say.
The poem ends,
Soft as it began—
I loved my friend.
Hughes’s genial, generous, and guarded persona was self-protective, certainly. It’s important to remember that he came of age in an era during which gay men—and blacks—were physically and mentally abused for being what they were. (He was self-preserving in other areas of his life as well. To protect his career, he testified at the House Un-American Activities Committee proceedings, which cost him his friendships with W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson.) Hughes’s mask was likely also a bulwark against his personal history, which he rarel