Langston Hughes

W. Jason Miller is Professor of Literature at North Carolina State University. His books include Langston Hughes and American Lynching Culture (2011) and Origins of the Dream: Hughes’s Poetry and King’s Rhetoric (2015).

• Prologue1 Motherless Child, 1901-192 I, Too, am America, 1919-243 A Bone of Contention, 1924-304 In the USSR, 1930-335 Let America Be America Again, 1933-406 Aimee B. Simple, 1940-457 F. B. Eyes, 1945-508 Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1950-539 Seeing Red, 1953-6010 Bright Tomorrows, 1960-6211 I Dream a World, 1962-7Epilogue References Further ReadingAcknowledgementsPhoto Acknowledgements

W. Jason Miller has chosen to concentrate on close readings of Hughes’ poetry, noting how far ahead of its time it seemed, and the fact that Hughes frequently requested that a blues musician provide accompaniment when he gave poetry readings. This is a physically attractive book, with heavy, glossy pages and some rarely seen black-and-white images. - The Gay & Lesbian ReviewFifty-two years after his death, the defiance and challenge that Langston Hughes evoked on the page during his long career still retain a sense of immediacy for contemporary audiences. In this book Jason Miller offers valuable new insights into the life of Langston Hughes and compelling readings of selected stories and poems that will be indispensable to students, teachers as well as new readers of Hughes’s prolific body of work. - Christopher C. De Santis, Professor of American and African-American literature, Illinois State University and Editor of Langston Hughes: A Documentary Volume and Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil RightsMiller’s biography links the works by Hughes to the many scholarly studies that have emerged in the past thirty years. His bibliography alone is a precious tool. Miller integrates his own examinations of primary sources, and he thereby provides a brilliant map for current and future research. Readers will gain a deeper appreciation for the complexity of Hughes's writing and his relationships—with individuals and with organizations. Indeed, Hughes was “Not So Simple.” - Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper, Fuller E. Callaway Professor of English, Spelman College, and author of Not So Simple: The “Simple” Stories by Langston Hughes