The Life And Works Of Langston Hughes
...sing, that old piano moan Ain't got nobody all in this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self. I's gwine to quit ma frownin' and put ma troubles on the shelf." The above excerpt is from Langston Hughes prize winning poem, "The Weary Blues." Hughes, considered to be one of the world's outstanding authors of the twentieth century (Ruley 148), is a prolific poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, autobiographer, and a writer a of children's books (Andrews, Foster, Harris 368). David Nicholson says of Hughes, "He strove to reflect an American reality ignored or distorted by other American writers (504)." The magnificent poet dealt with many struggles in his life and was criticized by many critics for the poem, "The Weary Blues", as well as his other works. The lyricist overcame this scrutiny and his struggles, to become a successful, talented writer.
Langston Hughes, of French, Indian, and African decent, was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902 (Andrews, Foster, Harris 368). His parents, Carrie and James Langston, were not apart of Hughes' childhood. Carrie Langston was a small town debutante; she left her son with his grandmother to go live in Kansas City to pursue an acting career (Bloom, Bloom's 11). As for his father, James Langston, a mixed, cold, man who detested blacks, ran off to Mexico (Bloom, Bloom's 11). Hughes loved his mother hopelessly and yearned to be with her (Rampersad 4) but his mother showed no interest to be with her son (Bloom, Bloom's 12). On the contrary, he vigorously loathed his "runaway" father (Rampersad 4). Without parents, his maternal grandmother, Mary Langston, in Lawrence Kansas raised the writer of verse (Andrews, Foster, Harris 369). Mary's first husband rode with John Brown on the attack of Harper's Ferry in 1859 (Bloom, Bloom's 11). Her second husband recruited soldiers for the fifty-fourth and...
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