Langston Hughes

  Langston Hughes, the author of "Life is Fine", was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri.  His full name was James Langston Hughes.  When his parents divorced when he was a little child, his grandmother took him in and raised him until he was 13 years old.  She lived in Lawrence, Kansas.  When his grandmother died, he went to live with his mother in Illinois and later in Cleveland, Ohio. Langston also spent a year living with his father in Mexico, but they didn't get along.   He started writing poetry when he was in high school.  He attended Columbia University, which Negros could attend at that time, in 1921.  That is when he discovered the Harlem area of New York City.  This was during the Harlem Renaissance when Negros were taking pride in their literature, music and art.  He was inspired by jazz music so most of his poems have a beat to them, including this one.  His writings showed that noWhites could ever experience a Negro's life.  When he was older, some peoploe called Langston Hughes the "Poet Laureate of the Negro Race."   Langston Hughes died in 1967.

Source:  http://www.ukans.edu/kansas/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html






 
Young Langston Hughes
Source:  http://trackstar.hprtec.org/main/track_frames.php3?track_id=94311&nocache=258413077







The famous poet Langston Hughes

Source:  http://www.oplin.lib.oh.us/products.ohioana/lhughes/LANGSTON.HTML


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