Langston Hughes

by James A. Emanuel

An analytical perusal of the American author's main works revealing the depth and clarity of his short stories and poems about the condition of Negroes in white America

192 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1967

Reviews

[Marlana-Patrice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book left me with mixed emotions. On the one hand, I enjoyed learning more details about Hughes' massive literary contributions that covered several genres: poetry, prose, opera, plays, and even children's literature. On the other hand, the author's style is scattered and quite meandering most of the time. In other words, flow and continuity are not its strongest suit. That is the main reason it was difficult to finish a book which is relatively short in length. Also, this work was published some time ago when "Negro" was a commonplace term rather than "African-American." The author speaks at length about Hughes being the Poet Laureate of his people and consequently laments that not many scholars at that time had done comprehensive studies of Hughes. Noted Hughes scholar, Arnold Rampersad, and others have remedied that by now. In short, this work has to be taken in the context of being very dated material. However, as already stated, its best merit is in providing details about some of Hughes' lesser-known works.