Langston Hughes was twenty-three when this first book appeared, introduced by Carl Van Vechten with an account of his restless travels. The poems move from Harlem cabarets, saxophones and dancers to the sea, to Africa and to ‘The Negro Speaks of Rivers’, dedicated to W. E. B. Du Bois, catching the cadence of the blues in print.
A founding book of the Harlem Renaissance, short enough for an evening and rich enough to reread for years. Download the free EPUB.