Product Description

This generous volume is a genuine literary milestone, the first comprehensive collection of the verse of a writer who has been called both the poet laureate of African America and our greatest popular poet since Walt Whitman. The book contains 860 poems, including all the verse that Hughes published during his lifetime, and nearly 300 that have never before appeared in book form.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27643 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-31
• Released on: 1995-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 736 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780679764083
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
At last Hughes has gotten his first collected edition; it is overdue. The editors have attempted to collect every poem (860 in all) published by the writer in his lifetime, and have also provided a brief but informative introduction, a detailed chronology and extensive textual notes that include the original date and place of publication for each poem. In fact, this edition corrects the many errors and omissions of the standard Hughes bibliography, and the editors plan to update the text as more unpublished work surfaces. Although Hughes is best known for his poems celebrating African African life, he was also a passionately political poet who paid dearly for his communist affiliations and radical views. The chronological arrangement of the poems allows the reader to follow the course of Hughes's career-long political engagement, though probably Hughes will mainly be read for the clarity of his language, his wise humor and his insight into the human condition. BOMC selection.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Far more comprehensive than other collections of Hughes's poetry, this work was put together with the assistance of noted Hughes biographer Rampersad. [Reviewed on p. 80.]
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In an early poem titled "Formula," Hughes (1902-67) mocks the belief that poetry should be about "lofty things." For this revolutionary African American poet, poetry had to be about "earthly pain." This poem also prefigures the central controversy of Hughes' literary career: he was celebrated as the poet laureate of Americans of African descent just as often as he was castigated for being trite and simplistic. In their succinct and informative introduction to this definitive and invaluable collection, Hughes biographer Rampersad and modern American poetry expert Roessel don't deny the fact that Hughes' newspaper work has been described as doggerel, but the 860 poems gathered here soar far above such nitpicking. All are published works, and all are exceptional. Hughes was a "democratic" poet who wanted his work to be accessible in both subject matter and style, so he wrote poems charged with the immediacy of life and the rhythm of speech and song. Influenced by the Bible, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Walt Whitman, Hughes' aesthetics were based on African American music, especially the plaintive pulse of the blues and the swoops and growls of jazz. Always a man of his times, Hughes wrote about southern violence, Harlem street life, poverty, prejudice, hunger, hopelessness, and love. Many of his poems are portraits of people whose lives are impacted by racism and sexual conflicts. During the 1930s, Hughes' poems took on a more international and politically radical tone; it was during this decade that Hughes acquired a damaging and inaccurate reputation for being a Communist. In spite of being condemned by critics on both the Left and the Right, Hughes stayed true to his muse, chronicling the black American experience and contrasting the beauty of the soul with the loathsomeness of circumstance. Donna Seaman

Customer Reviews

Should be required reading
I purchased this book when I had to write an essay on the poems of Langston Hughes. I will refer to and enjoy this book forever. The poems of Langston Hughes are timeless and poignant; sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes uplifting. I firmly believe that some of his poems should be required reading for ALL Americans. If you're a fan of Hughes, add this book to your collection-- you'll have almost every poem he ever wrote at your fingertips. If you haven't been introduced to the illustrious Langston Hughes, you will not regret picking up this book.

An Artist for all People!!!
For those who like and admire the poetic works of Langston Hughes, this is the book to purchase. This book collects all the "known" and "published" poems written by Hughes within his lifetime and at the different stages in his life. You have the so-called "race" poems that celebrate the dignity and beauty of black Americans, you have the poems of social protest such as those written during the 1930's that deal with inequality and injustice common to all regardless of race, the poems meant for children, and you even have the trite subject matter about love lost and found and springtime, nearly all written in the style of jazz and the blues that Hughes loved so much. Congrates must go to Arnold Rampersad and David Rossel for the effort in gathering these poems in their most current rendition as Hughes last wrote them. An effort was made by the editors to put the poems in the order they were written and published. A number of the poems were meant to be accompanied by jazz and blues music or read aloud in a specific way to drive home the point of the piece.

At first glance, all the poems collected in this book appear simple and straight foreward. But, Hughes was skilled at putting a lot of meaning into just a few lines of his work. An example are the poems "Cross" and "Mulatto" which tell how the mixed bloodlines of every decendent of the pure blooded African slave and European came to exist today in modern black America and how prejudice denied them the right to claim all their heritages (political correct stereotypes, labels, are doing the same today!!!). My favorite of the poems here is "Dream Variation." Carl Van Vetchen truncated some of the poem in his introduction to the the WEARY BLUES, the first book by Hughes. Langston's love for black Americans is evident throughout all his catalogue of work from essays, short stories novels, and plays as well as poetry. But this affection and the black pride he possessed did not exclude the bond of brotherhood he felt for all people regardless of race and color. This isn't to say that behind the famous smile there wasn't an angry black man. Hughes was angry at all the injustices against black Americans, but he did not let his anger consume and blind him. He bridled his anger and used it constructively, the testament of a true artist of the any people.

The Complete Collection of a Master
I've long been a fan of Hughes work, but was not aware of how much he had written until I got this collection. It is too bad that Hughes is often labeled as a "Harlen Renaissance" poet and then dismissed, because his poetry still holds meaning today for anyone willing to hear it. Hughes states his universal truths in an American voice, while at the same time exposing the flaws of American society (flaws which in many ways still exist today as much as they did in the 20's, 30's and 40's).

This is great poetry, and I still read from it again and again. Highly recommended for anyone and everyone.