Not Without Laughter, The Ways of White Folks, The Weary Blues
One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston
Hughes may be best known as a poet, but he was also a brilliant storyteller, blending
elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom.
Perhaps more than any other writer, Langston Hughes made the white America of the
1920s and 1930s aware of the Black culture thriving in its midst. Hughes's poetry and
fiction works are messages from that America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life,
cruelly accurate portrayals of Black and white collisions.
Everyman's Library pursues the highest production standards, printing on acid-free paper,
with full-cloth cases with two-color foil stamping, decorative endpapers, silk ribbon markers,
European-style half-round spines, and a full-color illustrated jacket.
Langston Hughes (Author)
Langston Hughes (1901-1967) was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the most influential and acclaimed American writers of the twentieth century. A renowned poet from a young age, Hughes' first collection of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published when he was just 24. He would go on to publish more than thirty-five books, including his award-winning debut novel, Not Without Laughter, and the short story collection, The Ways of White Folks. His widely-read journalism and nonfiction became important documents in the support and promotion of the civil rights movement.
Dr. Joshua Bennett (Introducer)
Dr. Joshua Bennett is the Distinguished Chair of the Humanities and Professor of Literature at MIT. He is the author of The Sobbing School, Being Property Once Myself, Owed, The Study of Human Life, and Spoken Word: A Cultural History.