Langston Hughes, one of the principal writers of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, is having a renaissance all his own. His many books are in high demand decades after they were first published, and new biographies and other studies of his life and work appear every year. A literary society has been established in his honor from which this journal emerges and is devoted entirely to scholarship on him. Several documentaries have been produced or are in production that examine nearly every aspect of his life. His image—with that infectious smile, cigarette in hand—is one of the most recognizable in all American arts and letters. Langston Hughes is seemingly everywhere and on the minds of many.
There is good reason for all this attention. Arguably one of the most significant writers in United States history, Hughes has left an indelible mark, culturally and politically, on American society. Hailed in...
