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 fem 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 birth
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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 ingenting 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 s
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Poet Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, His parents named him James Mercer Langston Hughes, but he went by Langston Hughes. His parents divorced shortly after he was born, and his father moved to Mexico. His mother traveled for work so Hughes spent most of his childhood in Lawrence, Kansas where he was raised by his grandmother.
His grandmother provided Hughes with stories and books which opened the world of literature to the young Hughes. Books became a place where he could find refuge in his childhood. After his grandmother’s death, he returned to his mother in Lincoln, Illinois and eventually graduated high school from Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio where he was awarded class poet and editor of the yearbook.
After high school, he attended Columbia University in New York, but he left after spending a year there. He did not enjoy his experiences at Columbia, but he loved the community he found in Harlem, New York. His poetry was first published i