The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

Paperback(1st Vintage classics ed)

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Overview

The definitive sampling of a writer whose poems were “at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance and of modernism itself, and today are fundamentals of American culture” (OPRAH Magazine).

Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language.

The collection spans five decades, and is comprised of 868 poems (nearly 300 of which never before appeared in book form) with annotations by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Alongside such famous works as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and Montage of a Dream Deferred, The Collected Poems includes Hughes's lesser-known verse for children; topical poems distributed through the Associated Negro Press; and poems such as "Goodbye Christ" that were once suppressed.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780679764083
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date: 10/31/1995
Series: Vintage Classics
Edition description: 1st Vintage classics ed
Pages: 736
Sales rank: 37,532
Product dimensions: 6.05(w) x 9.16(h) x 1.89(d)
Lexile: NP (what's this?)

About the Author

LANGSTON HUGHES was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. After graduation from high school, he spent a year in Mexico with his father, then a year studying at Columbia University. His first poem published in a nationally known magazine was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which appeared in Crisis in 1921. In 1925, he was awarded the First Prize for Poetry from the magazine Opportunity for “The Weary Blues,” which gave its title to his first book of poems, published in 1926. Hughes received his B.A. from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1929. In 1943, he was awarded an honorary Litt.D. by his alma mater; during his lifetime, he was also awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1935), a Rosenwald Fellowship (1940), and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant (1947). From 1926 until his death in 1967, Hughes devoted his time to writing and lecturing. He wrote poetry, short stories, autobiography, song lyrics, essays, humor, and plays. A cross section of his work was published in 1958 as The Langston Hughes Reader; Selected Poems first appeared in 1959 and a Collected Poems in 1994. Today, his many works and his contribution to American letters continue to be cherished and celebrated around the world.

Read an Excerpt

Juke Box Love Song

I could take the Harlem night and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem's heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day—
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.

Table of Contents

Introduction3
A Chronology of the Life of Langston Hughes8
The Poems of Langston Hughes
Poems 1921-193021
Poems 1931-1940133
Poems 1941-1950223
Poems 1951-1960377
Poems 1961-1967471
Appendix 1Poems Circulated by the Associated Negro Press563
Appendix 2Poetry for Children595
Appendix 3Additional Poems611
Notes to the Poems619
Index of First Lines697
Index of Titles707
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