Langston Hughes Influences

One of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry, Langston Hughes was an african american Poet, social activist, play writer, and novelist who made a contribution to the Harlem Renaissance of the1920’s. As a child, Langston rarely saw his parents because of their divorce and his mother constantly moving around. Despite of this however, he met new people and in high school and was introduced to the works of poetry written by Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman by one of his teachers whom Hughes would later cite as primary influences in his career in the future. From his difficult childhood to a famous african american poet, Langston Hughes is one you surely will not forget.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in the city of Joplin,

hotel restaurant when he met American poet Vachel Lindsay. He had showed Lindsay his work and was impressed enough to use his connections to promote Hughes poetry. In this following years he published two volumes of poetry, “The Weary Blues” and “Fine Clothes to the Blues” , and his first novel, Not Without Laughter. These were successful enough to convince Hughes to become a full time writer. During the 1930’s he would travel the United states along with many other countries on lecture tours. In 1940, Hughes's autobiography The Big Sea, was published and he began contributing a column to the Chicago Defender. The columns were highly successful and would later be the focus of several of Hughes's books and plays. In the late 1940s, Hughes contributed the lyrics for a Broadway musical titled Street Scene. Around this time, he also taught creative writing at Atlanta University and was a guest lecturer at a university in Chicago for several months.In the late 1940s, Hughes contributed the lyrics for a Broadway musical titled Street Scene, which featured music by Kurt Weill. The success of the musical would earn Hughes enough money that he was finally able to buy a house in Harlem. Around this time, he also taught creative writing at Atlanta University and was a guest lecturer at a university in Chicago for several months. Over the next two decades, Hughes would continue his prolific output. In 1949 he wrote a play that inspired the opera Troubled Island. During the 1950s and 1960s, he published countless other works and the second installment of his autobiography, I Wonder as I