 Born February 1 st, 1902 › Born in Joplin, Missouri  Parents were separated, so he mostly lived with his maternal grandma › Lived in Lawrence, Kansas  After his grandma died he went and lived with his mother in Cleveland, Ohio › This is where he started writing poetry

 After High School he went to Colombia College in 1920, but only attend for one year › After his one year of college he traveled around and held many odd jobs  Odd Jobs include:  Merchant Seas men  Busboy  Night Club  He wrote Poetry the entire time he traveled

 Amy Spingarn helped Langston finance his college at Lincoln University ( )  In the 1930’s Langston was drawn to the Communist Party › He wrote poems for the “New Masses” a journal associated with the Communist party › He traveled to the Soviet Union in 1932

 He was a founder of the Harlem Renaissance movement  Langston wrote poems, plays, short stories, and a column for the Chicago “Defender”  His work focused on modern black life. And his work demanded that African Americans be acknowledged as owners of the culture that they gave to the United States.

 The stanzas of his poems were formed on the rhythm of Jazz  The language and Vocabulary of his poems were adapted from everyday black speech

 His first poem was published in 1920 › “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers”  His first Volume of poems was published in 1926, with the help of Carl Van Vechten › “Watery Blues”  He had poems appear in both › Alain Locke’s anthology › Countee Cullen’s anthology

 In 1926 “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountains” appeared in the “Nation”  Money was tight for Langston and in 1930 his novel “Not Without Laughter” was published and this solidified sales and allowed him to support himself › This Novel won Harmon Gold Medal for Literature › Before this Charlotte Mason subsidized him in New York until 1930

 Langston was able to support him-self after “Not Without Laughter” but money was still tight › In 1947 he wrote the lyrics to a “Street Scene” and he was then able to buy a house  In 1951 he published “Montage of a Dream Deferred” › One of his most known works › After he wrote 20 more works until his death

 Langston died May 22, 1967  He died from complications of Prostate Cancer  He died in New York, New York

 boundaries/page6e1.html boundaries/page6e1.html   gston-hughes gston-hughes  The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume D Eighth Edition, pages

 Pictures for Google › I just goolged Langston Hughes