Born James Langston Hughes in
Joplin,
Missouri, 1902. Hughes spent much of his
childhood in
Lawrence,
Kansas living with his
grandmother until her death in his twelfth year and then his
aunt and
uncle. Langston left Kansas at the age of fourteen when his mother re-married and went to live with his mother and stepfather, first in
illinois and later in
Cleveland,
Ohio. Although selected as class
poet by his eight grade class in Kansas, it was during his high school years in Ohio, Hughes first began writing poems on a regular basis. Hughes also began reading a wide variety of authors and was especially impressed with the work of
Carl Sandburg. Hughes was active in school and was the Editor of his High School's yearbook.
After high school graduation, Langston went to live with his father in mexico, where he was briefly employed as an english teacher. Langston and his father did not get along well, however, his father agreed to pay for his college education and Langston was enrolled at Columbia University. During the train ride to New York (which was segrated through the american south), Hughes wrote A Negro Speaks of Rivers, which was published in the NAACP magazine The Crisis in 1921.
Hughes immensely enjoyed the theater, culture and parties he found in Harlem; but was not fond of his academic studies. Eventually, Hughes dropped out of Columbia and signed on as a cabin-boy on a ship bound for Africa. In Paris, Hughes jumped ship and lived in a garret for a brief time with a russian ballerina. He continued to write and submit poetry to The Crisis. In Paris, Hughes worked as a waiter in a popular jazz club and met many american celebrities of the age.
Hughes traveled all over europe, before ending up destitute in Italy, where (by his own account) he asked the NAACP for monetary assistance so he could return to the United States. Hughes returned to New York with the Harlem Rennaissance in High swing, and loved every moment of it. During this time period he made friends with many important writers of the age including Countee Cullen, Carl Van Vechten and Zora Neale Hurston (although Hughes eventually had a violent falling out with Thurston over their collaboration on the play, Mule Bone). It was also during this time period that Hughes slipped a few poems to Vachel Lindsay who was impressed and promoted the young poet. In 1926, Hughes' first book of poetry was published by Alfred A. Knopf and Hughes was quickly at the forefront of the literary talent associated with the Harlem Rennaissance. Hughes continued to write poems and essays for a variety of publications, including several leftist publications (his communist leanings were never mentioned in his autobiography and disavowed during the house committee on unamerican activities hearings).
Hughes was briefly sponsored by a wealthy patroness who was interest in "primitive", however she and Hughes had a falling out over the direction of his works and they parted ways. Hughes returned to college at Lincoln University and received a grant to write his first novel, Not Without Laughter, which was published in 1930.
Hughes was a prolific writer, and before his death of cancer in 1967 wrote sixteen books of poetry (including the groundbreaking book length poem Montage of a Dream Deferred), two novels, three collections of short stories, twenty plays, serveral musicals and an Opera and dozens of essays on various subjects.
Information taken fromThe Big Sea by Langston Hughes and The Life of Langston Hughes by Arnold Rampersad.