Limit this search to....

Selected Letters of Langston Hughes
Contributor(s): Hughes, Langston (Author), Rampersad, Arnold (Editor), Roessel, David (Editor)
ISBN: 0375413790     ISBN-13: 9780375413797
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
OUR PRICE:   $31.50  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: February 2015
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Cultural, Ethnic & Regional - General
- Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures
- Literary Criticism | American - African American
Dewey: B
LCCN: 2014014896
Physical Information: 1.6" H x 6.6" W x 9.5" (1.90 lbs) 480 pages
Themes:
- Ethnic Orientation - African American
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

This is the first comprehensive selection from the correspondence of the iconic and beloved Langston Hughes. It offers a life in letters that showcases his many struggles as well as his memorable achievements. Arranged by decade and linked by expert commentary, the volume guides us through Hughes's journey in all its aspects: personal, political, practical, and--above all--literary. His letters range from those written to family members, notably his father (who opposed Langston's literary ambitions), and to friends, fellow artists, critics, and readers who sought him out by mail. These figures include personalities such as Carl Van Vechten, Blanche Knopf, Zora Neale Hurston, Arna Bontemps, Vachel Lindsay, Ezra Pound, Richard Wright, Kurt Weill, Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Jr., Alice Walker, Amiri Baraka, and Muhammad Ali. The letters tell the story of a determined poet precociously finding his mature voice; struggling to realize his literary goals in an environment generally hostile to blacks; reaching out bravely to the young and challenging them to aspire beyond the bonds of segregation; using his artistic prestige to serve the disenfranchised and the cause of social justice; irrepressibly laughing at the world despite its quirks and humiliations. Venturing bravely on what he called the "big sea" of life, Hughes made his way forward always aware that his only hope of self-fulfillment and a sense of personal integrity lay in diligently pursuing his literary vocation. Hughes's voice in these pages, enhanced by photographs and quotations from his poetry, allows us to know him intimately and gives us an unusually rich picture of this generous, visionary, gratifyingly good man who was also a genius of modern American letters.