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Langston Hughes

ラングストン・ヒューズ

Rangusuton Hyūzu

Aliases: James Mercer Langston Hughes
Pen Names: Langston Hughes（Used as his common publishing name / pen name）

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1901-02-01 （Joplin, Missouri, U.S.）
Died
1967-05-22 （New York City, U.S.） age 66
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
None / Humanist-leaning
Residence History
Lawrence, Kansas (childhood) → Harlem, New York City (primary residence) → Paris, France (short stay) → Westfield, New Jersey (residence in 1930s) → Mexico (short stay)

Career

Occupations
poet, novelist, playwright, essayist, columnist, translator, social activist
Active Years
1920-1967
Affiliations
Omega Psi Phi (fraternity), Association for the Study of African American Life and History (worked as assistant)
Memberships
Omega Psi Phi, National Institute of Arts and Letters
Influenced By
Walt Whitman, Black oral/folk tradition, Jazz and blues musicians
Influenced
James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Nicolás Guillén, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Aimé Césaire

Education

Columbia University (attended)
Period: 1921–1922
Country: United States
Left before graduation amid hostile racial climate
Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1927–1929
Year of Graduation: 1929
Country: United States
Attended and earned B.A. at historically Black university

Awards

Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize
1926
Organization: Witter Bynner prize organization
Result: 受賞
Guggenheim Fellowship
1935
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: 受賞
Rosenwald Fund Fellowship
1941
Organization: Rosenwald Fund
Result: 受賞
Honorary Litt.D., Lincoln University
1943
Category: 名誉学位
Organization: Lincoln University
Result: 授与
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
1954
Organization: Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
Result: 受賞
Spingarn Medal
1960
Organization: NAACP
Result: 受賞
National Institute of Arts and Letters
1961
Category: 会員
Organization: National Institute of Arts and Letters
Result: 選出
Honorary doctorate, Howard University
1963
Category: 名誉学位
Organization: Howard University
Result: 授与
Honorary Litt.D., Western Reserve University
1964
Category: 名誉学位
Organization: Western Reserve University
Result: 授与

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

1921 Poem

A signature poem comparing the soul and history of Black people to ancient rivers; one of Hughes's best-known early works.

historyBlack identitycontinuity

The Weary Blues

1926 Poetry collection

Hughes's first major poetry collection, incorporating jazz and blues rhythms and portraying urban Black life.

music (jazz, blues)urban liferace and pride
Adaptations
  • [Spoken-word / music recording] Weary Blues (album) (1959)

Not Without Laughter

1930 Novel

A novel about a Black family in the Midwest that explores race, class, and coming-of-age themes.

coming-of-agefamilyrace and class

Montage of a Dream Deferred

1951 Poetry/poetry collection

A sequence of poems using montage to depict Harlem's deferred dreams and social realities.

urban montagefrustration and hoperace issues

Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz

1961 Poetry / experimental

A long, jazz-influenced poem combining rhythm, graphics, and political themes; performed and set to music posthumously.

music and politicsAfrican diasporaexperimental expression
Adaptations
  • [Music performance / concert] Ask Your Mama (Carnegie Hall performance) / Laura Karpman（音楽構成・演奏プロジェクト） (2009)

Bibliography

  • The Weary Blues (poetry, 1926)
  • Fine Clothes to the Jew (poetry, 1927)
  • Not Without Laughter (novel, 1930)
  • The Ways of White Folks (short stories, 1934)
  • Montage of a Dream Deferred (poetry, 1951)
  • Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz (poetry, 1961)
  • The Big Sea (autobiography, 1940)
  • I Wonder as I Wander (autobiography, 1956)

Adaptations

  • Weary Blues (recording with music, 1959)
  • Way Down South (film, screenplay co-writing, 1939)
  • Ask Your Mama (concert/performance, 2009–)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
jazz poetry (incorporating jazz and blues rhythms)vernacular, colloquial voice aimed at popular audiencesuse of montage and experimental forms
Recurring Motifs
rivers/flow as metaphor for time and historymusic (jazz, blues)everyday life of working-class Black peoplepride and resistance

Health

  • Prostate cancer
    治療と手術を経て1967年に合併症で死亡
    Died in 1967 from complications after abdominal surgery related to prostate cancer

Legacy

Langston Hughes, a leading 'people's poet' of the Harlem Renaissance, brought jazz rhythm and Black folk traditions into literature and deeply influenced twentieth-century African-descended writers and cultural movements worldwide. His work continues to be widely read and performed.

Museums

  • Langston Hughes Memorial Library, Lincoln University Lincoln University campus, Pennsylvania, U.S.
  • Schomburg Center foyer medallion / Rivers cosmogram Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Harlem, New York City

Academic Societies

  • Langston Hughes Society

Archives

  • Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale (Langston Hughes papers)
  • Moorland–Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
  • Langston Hughes Memorial Library collections at Lincoln University

In Popular Culture

  • Poems performed in musical settings and frequently referenced or portrayed in film and stage works
  • Commemorated by a Google Doodle in 2015

Quotes

  • My soul has grown deep like the rivers. (from "The Negro Speaks of Rivers")
    Source: Poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (first published in The Crisis, 1921) (1921)
  • The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. (from "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain")
    Source: Essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (The Nation, 1926) (1926)

Trivia

  • His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion (Rivers cosmogram) at the Schomburg Center in Harlem.
  • Won the Harmon Gold Medal for literature for Not Without Laughter (1930).
  • Participated in a 1959 recorded album reading his poems with musical accompaniment.