Cover

About the Author

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. After graduation from high school, he spent a year in Mexico with his father, then a year studying at Columbia University. His first poem in a nationally known magazine was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which appeared in The Crisis in 1921. In 1925, he was awarded the First Prize for Poetry of the magazine Opportunity, the winning poem being “The Weary Blues,” which gave its title to his first book of poems, published in 1926. As a result of his poetry, Mr. Hughes received a scholarship at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, where he won his B.A. in 1929. In 1943, he was awarded an honorary Litt.D. by his alma mater; he has also been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship (1935), a Rosenwald Fellowship (1940), and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant (1947). From 1926 until his death in 1967, Langston Hughes devoted his time to writing and lecturing. He wrote poetry, short stories, autobiography, song lyrics, essays, humor, and plays. A cross section of his work was published in 1958 as The Langston Hughes Reader.

Other Titles

ALSO BY LANGSTON HUGHES

POETRY

The Panther and the Lash (1967)

Ask Your Mama (1961)

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1959)

Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

One Way Ticket (1949)

Fields of Wonder (1947)

Shakespeare in Harlem (1942)

Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927)

The Weary Blues (1926)

FICTION

Something in Common and Other Stories (1963)

The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955)

Laughing to Keep from Crying (1952)

The Ways of White Folks (1934)

Not Without Laughter (1930)

DRAMA

Five Plays by Langston Hughes (1963)

HUMOR

Simple’s Uncle Sam (1965)

The Best of Simple (1961)

Simple States a Claim (1957)

Simple Takes a Wife (1953)

Simple Speaks His Mind (1950)

FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

First Book of Africa (1964)

The First Book of the West Indies (1956)

The First Book of Rhythms (1954)

The First Book of Jazz (1954)

The First Book of the Negroes (1952)

Pop and Fifina (1932)—With Arna Bontemps

BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Famous Negro Heroes of America (1958)

I Wonder as I Wander (1956)

Famous Negro Music Makers (1955)

Famous American Negroes (1964)

The Big Sea (1940)

ANTHOLOGY

Selected Letters of Langston Hughes (2015)

The Langston Hughes Reader (1958)

HISTORY

Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment (1967)—With Milton Meltzer

Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP (1962)

A Pictorial History of the Negro in America (1956)—With Milton Meltzer

TRANSLATIONS

Selected Poems by Gabriela Mistral (1957)

Cuba Libre: Poems by Nicolás Guillén (1948)

Masters of the Dew (1947)

with Mercer Cook. A translation of the novel Gouverneurs de la rosée by Jacques Roumain

Title Page

Father and Son

from The Ways of White Folks

Langston Hughes

A Vintage Short

Vintage Books

A Division of Penguin Random House LLC

New York

Copyright

Copyright © 1933, 1934 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

Copyright renewed 1962 by Langston Hughes