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“So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.”
Langston Hughes got his big break in 1925 while working
as a busboy. The noted poet and critic Vachel Lindsay
came in to dine at the restaurant where Hughes worked,
and Hughes decided to take a chance. He lay three of his
poems beside Lindsay’s plate. Lindsay liked them enough
to read them at his own public lecture that night. The next
day, Hughes’s name was in the local papers, and his career
was launched.
Over the course of his life, he wrote poetry, fiction,
essays, autobiography, children’s books, drama, and the
librettos for several operas. He edited anthologies and
other books and gave frequent public lectures. “I’m not a
best-selling author,” he once said, “I have to do all sorts of
things. I’m trying to conduct a major career on a minor
income.” Many credit him as the first African-American to
support himself entirely by his writing.
For the generations of writers, black and white, that
followed him, Hughes was remembered for finding the
material for great literature in the lives of common African-Americans,
whom he called “low-down folk.” But his
stylistic innovations were just as significant. He modeled
his rhythms and cadences first on the blues and spirituals
and later on jazz. He’s still known as “the Poet Laureate
of Harlem.” |
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Langston Hughes
(1902–1967) |
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