The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes [B2225]

1995 PB (later printing, 717-pages), clean with minor cover wear. This magnificent volume is the definitive sampling of Langston Hughes (1901-1967), who has been called the poet laureate of African America--and perhaps our greatest popular poet since Walt Whitman. Hughes' poems were "at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance and of modernism itself, and today are fundamentals of American culture" (OPRAH Magazine). Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language.

The collection spans five decades, and is comprised of 868 poems (nearly 300 of which never before appeared in book form) with annotations by editors Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. The collection includes such famous works as The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Montage of a Dream Deferred, as well as Hughes' lesser-known verse for children; topical poems distributed through the Associated Negro Press; and poems such as Goodbye Christ that were once suppressed.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "So much here to unpack. The jazzier poems were not for me, but those that bit into the 20th-century Black experience were poignantly sharp, this past year more than ever. Hughes is one of our greatest American poets for very good reason."; "I've always wanted a book of poems by Langston Hughes, largely from word of mouth and reputation. This collection is exactly what I hoped for-powerful, thoughtful, and timeless. I'm glad to finally have it in my library.";

"Langston Hughes writes with a kind of honesty that makes his poems feel both personal and larger than one person. I loved the musical quality of his language and the way ordinary experiences become powerful through his voice. His poems made me think about dignity, hope, injustice, dreams, and the importance of holding onto faith in humanity. There is sadness throughout the collection, but I never felt that Hughes completely surrendered to despair. That balance between suffering and hope really stayed with me. I found myself rereading certain poems because their simplicity made their meaning hit harder the second time. This collection reminded me why poetry matters: sometimes a few carefully chosen words can carry the weight of an entire life."