Langston Hughes Biography Essay

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Langston Hughes endured many hardships, even during infancy. His parents divorced and his dad moved all the way to Mexico. When he was thirteen years old, he went to go live with his grandmother in Lincoln, Illinois. It was then he decided to put the rest of his love and passion into his poetry and became one of the most famous and well-known poets of all time.
Hughes was born on the first of February in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. [Although] he was born in Joplin, he mostly grew up in Lawrence Kansas. When his father moved to Mexico after the divorce, Hughes and his mother moved around a lot until he moved in with his grandmother, Mary and he then began the start of his poetry career. [After] his grandmother died when he was in his early teens, he moved back in with his mother in Cleveland, Ohio. His teacher in Cleveland introduced him to more poetry and authors. Hughes contributed to his school’s magazine and submitted to other poetry magazines who mostly rejected him. When he graduated from school in 1920, he moved down to Mexico with his father and in 1921, he moved back to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University. He dropped out in 1922 and had various jobs in New York. In 1925, he worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C., and he met a poet named Vachel Lindsay. He showed the poems that he had written to Lindsay. Lindsay took interest in his poems and used his connections to get Hughes’s poetry promoted. Hughes differed from other poets because he uses the inspiration he gets from African American, blues, and jazz music. Some influences that made him want to start writing poetry were: Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman. These poets were introduced to him by his high school English teacher who also helped him with his poetry. [Since] these poets influenced him, he wanted to pursue a career in poetry. He/ then later reconnected with his father who still lived in Mexico and convinced him to pay for his college tuition at Columbia University so he could begin his career as a writer (Langston Hughes Biography). [After] Langston studied at Columbia college for a year, he was introduced to Harlem.
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He was so intrigued by the art scene there that he defined the spirit of age from a literary point of view. The Big Sea was the first volume of his autobiography and it provides his point of view about the Harlem Renaissance. He met other writers during this time period such as: Countee Cullen, Claude McCay, W.E.B. DuBois, and James Weldon Johnson (Langston Hughes Biography). [When] his poem “The Weary Blues” won first prize in the 1925 Opportunity magazine literary contest, his literary career finally took off. His very first volume of poetry was called The Weary Blues. The second volume of poetry that he published was called, Fine Clothes to the Jew.” Many people didn’t approve of it because of the time period it was written in which was 1927. Some people said it was too experimental, but many critics also believe it to be some of his best poetry he’s ever written. Hughes moved to Pennsylvania shortly after to attend Lincoln University. An older and wealthy white woman supported Hughes. She convinced him to write his novel, Not Without Laughter. When the two had an argument and their relationship started to fade, he published poetry in New Masses. Hughes mostly wrote about black people’s lives in America. They were said to be portrayed as colorful and insightful. One of his poem’s is called, The Ballad of the Landlord. What? You gonna get eviction orders? You gonna cut off my heat? You gonna take my furniture and Throw it in the street? Um-huh! You talking high and mighty. Talk on-till you get through. You ain’t gonna be able to say a word If I land my fist on you. Hughes is talking about how a white landlord is making a black man pay rent when he’s trying to fix up the house and everything is broken. He’s trying to explain this to the landlord, but he tells him that he better pay and if he doesn’t, no one is going

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