Most Popular Books by Langston Hughes

Illus. in black-and-white. This classic collection of poetry is available in a handsome new gift edition that includes seven additional poems written after The Dream Keeper was first published. In a larger format, featuring Brian Pinkney''s scratchboard art on every spread, Hughes''s inspirational message to young people is as relevant today as it was in 1932.

A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes. Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. . . With these first lines, Hughes invites the reader into an experimental playground that tells the story of a Black man''s life in America. Featuring poems such as, "Dream Variations," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Our Land," Hughes weaves in and out of verse, highlighting the lows of struggle in the face of segregation and racism, but also the highs of creation from the time when, "the Negroes were in vogue." Now considered to be an American classic, The Weary Blues embodies the feel of the rhythm, improvisation, and soul of Black classical music, pioneered the genre of "jazz poetry," and left an irreplaceable mark in the African-American literary canon. Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Weary Blues is a sensational reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.

Most of these works, rediscovered by Faith Berry as she researched her biography of Hughes, have never been collected in book form. Written mainly when Hughes was a young man and representing some of his most incisive and deeply-felt work, these poems, stories and articles were originally published in small magazines between 1925 and 1957.

Twentieth-century African-American writer Langston Hughes'' final collection of stories based on his "Chicago Defender" newspaper character Jesse B. Semple, a simple man who commented on a wide range of everyday topics within the context of race and politics.

Black Magic Langston Hughes''s last book, presents the vast, sweeping story of African-American entertainers--the artists and the musicians, the singers and the dancers, the obscure and the illustrious--from the tragic beginnings in slavery to he triumphant artistic achievements of the late 1960s. Long considered the most comprehensive history of African-Americans in the performing arts, this milestone in black history features hundreds of rare and beautiful illustrations. Covering both the obstacles to achievement that these artists faced, and their eventual triumph, Black Magic—long out-of-print—is an essential book of American history.

The Short Stories of Langston Hughes, written between 1919 and 1963, showcases the author''s literary blossoming and the development of his personal and artistic concerns. Many of the stories assembled here have long been out of print, and others never before collected. These poignant, witty, angry, and deeply poetic stories demonstrate Hughes''s uncanny gift for elucidating the most vexing questions of American race relations and human nature in general.

Discover the power and joy of poetry in this simple, modern introduction to Langston Hughes, featuring an ode to spring and long-awaited new beginnings In this illustrated adaptation of a beloved Langston Hughes poem, a child delights as the world around him awakens from winter and comes to life with the long-awaited arrival of spring and new beginnings of all kinds.

An introduction to jazz music by one of our finest writers. Langston Hughes, celebrated poet and longtime jazz enthusiast, wrote The First Book of Jazz as a homage to the music that inspired him. The roll of African drums, the dancing quadrilles of old New Orleans, the work songs of the river ports, the field shanties of the cotton plantations, the spirituals, the blues, the off-beats of ragtime -- in a history as exciting as jazz rhythms, Hughes describes how each of these played a part in the extraordinary history of jazz.

“Dream Variation,” one of Langston Hughes''s most celebrated poems, about the dream of a world free of discrimination and racial prejudice, is now a picture book stunningly illustrated by Daniel Miyares, the acclaimed creator of Float. To fling my arms wide In some place of the sun, To whirl and to dance Till the white day is done…. Langston Hughes''s inspiring and timeless message of pride, joy, and the dream of a better life is brilliantly and beautifully interpreted in Daniel Miyares''s gorgeous artwork. Follow one African-American boy through the course of his day as the harsh reality of segregation and racial prejudice comes into vivid focus. But the boy dreams of a different life—one full of freedom, hope, and wild possibility, where he can fling his arms wide in the face of the sun. Hughes''s powerful vision, brought joyously to life by Daniel Miyares, is as relevant—and necessary—today as when it was first written.

African American literature is the body of literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent. It begins with the works of such late 18th-century writers as Phillis Wheatley. Before the high point of enslaved people narratives, African-American literature was dominated by autobiographical spiritual narratives. The genre known as slave narratives in the 19th century were accounts by people who had generally escaped from slavery, about their journeys to freedom and ways they claimed their lives. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s was a great period of flowering in literature and the arts, influenced both by writers who came North in the Great Migration and those who were immigrants from Jamaica and other Caribbean islands. Contents: Phillis Wheatley To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth On Virtue An Hymn To the Morning An Hymn To the Evening Frances E. W. Harper Bury Me in a Free Land Songs for the People My Mother''s Kiss A Grain of Sand Our Hero The Sparrow''s Fall James Weldon Johnson Sence You Went Away Paul Laurence Dunbar The Lesson Sympathy We Wear the Mask Claude McKay After the Winter If We Must Die The Tropics in New York Countee Cullen For Paul Laurence Dunbar Incident Langston Hughes The Weary Blues Jazzonia Negro Dancers The Cat And The Saxophone (2 A. M.) Young Singer Cabaret To Midnight Nan At Leroy’S To A Little Lover-Lass, Dead Harlem Night Club Nude Young Dancer Young Prostitute To A Black Dancer In “The Little Savoy” Song For A Banjo Dance Blues Fantasy Lenox Avenue: Midnight

Winner of the Coretta Scott King illustrator award, I, Too, Am America blends the poetic wisdom of Langston Hughes with visionary illustrations from Bryan Collier in this inspirational picture book that carries the promise of equality. I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Langston Hughes was a courageous voice of his time, and his authentic call for equality still rings true today. Beautiful paintings from Barack Obama illustrator Bryan Collier accompany and reinvent the celebrated lines of the poem "I, Too," creating a breathtaking reminder to all Americans that we are united despite our differences. This picture book of Langston Hughes’s celebrated poem, "I, Too, Am America," is also a Common Core Text Exemplar for Poetry.

"My little dark baby, / My little earth-thing, / My little love-one, / What shall I sing / For your lullaby?" With a few simple words as smooth as a song, the poet Langston Hughes celebrates the love between an African American mother and her baby. The award-winning illustrator Sean Qualls''s painted and collaged artwork captures universally powerful maternal moments with tenderness and whimsy. In the end, readers will find a rare photo of baby Hughes and his mother, a biographical note, further reading, and the complete lullaby. Like little love-ones, this beautiful book is a treasure.

First published in 1932, this book describes the rustic life that existed in Haiti during the 1930s. Written with simplicity, realism and poetic charm the reader follows the experiences and adventures of two children moving from their home in the hills to a town by the sea. BandW woodcut illus.

Since his death in 1967, Langston Hughes''s reputation has continued to grow. He is now widely regarded as one of the foremost poets of his time and one of the most eloquent and beloved spokesmen of his people. Remembered by many as a fighter for the poor and downtrodden, Hughes in his early work was outspoken, but he tempered his views later, and some of the early social protest writings receded into the shadows. Faith Berry rediscovered the material presented in "Good Morning Revolution". -- From publisher''s description.

When he and his parents move to the quiet Mexican town of Taxco, Kenny makes friends with Juanito Perez, and the two share many adventures with Juanito''s special papier-mache toy, Tito.

The only collaboration between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, The Mule-Bone is a three-act comedy depicting the romantic rivalry between two lifelong friends, Jim Weston and Dave Carter, as they both try to woo the same woman, Daisy Taylor. Set in the town of Eatonville, Florida (Zora Neale Hurston’s hometown and the setting of her novel Their Eyes Were Watching God), the play humorously explores the interpersonal and religious conflicts in an early 20th-century African-American community while incorporating themes from folklore. Hughes and Hurston’s collaboration on The Mule-Bone was a troubled one, since it ended in an authorship dispute between the two, and the play was never properly finished. Hughes even noted on his personal copy, “This play was never done because the authors fell out.” The play was not produced until 1991, over sixty years after it was written, when it was performed at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre to lukewarm reviews. This Standard Ebooks edition is based on the manuscript deposited by Zora Neale Hurston with the United States Copyright Office in 1931, the only version of The Mule-Bone known to be out of copyright. This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. Contents: Langston Hughes: The Weary Blues Countee Cullen: Color Copper Sun The Ballad Of The Brown Girl Claude McKay: Harlem Shadows Jean Toomer: Cane

Twenty-six short poems introduce animals for each letter of the alphabet, from Ape to Zebra.

A teenager tries to steal the purse of Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and is rebuked in a surprising fashion.

Mule Bone is the only collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, two stars of the Harlem Renaissance, and it holds an unparalleled place in the annals of African-American theater. Set in Eatonville, Florida--Hurston''s hometown and the inspiration for much of her fiction--this energetic and often farcical play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between them. Overcome by jealousy, Jim hits Dave with a mule bone and hilarity follows chaos as the town splits into two factions: the Methodists, who want to pardon Jim; and the Baptists, who wish to banish him for his crime. Included in this edition is the fascinating account of the Mule Bone copyright dispute between Hurston and Hughes that ended their friendship and prevented the play from being performed until its debut production at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in 1991--sixty years after it was written. Also included is "The Bone of Contention," Hurston''s short story on which the play was based; personal and often heated correspondence between the authors; and critical essays that illuminate the play and the dazzling period that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.