Letters from Langston

Evelyn Louise Crawford, a retired arts administrator and consultant, and MaryLouise Patterson, a pediatrician in clinical practice, are the daughters of Langston Hughes's cherished friends Evelyn Graves Crawford, Matt N. Crawford, Louise Thompson Patterson, and William L. Patterson. Hughes was a frequent guest in the homes of the two families and was like an uncle to to Evelyn Louise and MaryLouise.

• Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: The Poet, the Crawfords, and the Pattersons PART ONE: THE TUMULTUOUS 1930S 1 * Wither White Philanthropy-Thank You and God for "The Weary Blues": October 1930-January 1932 2 * Moscow Bound in Black and White: March 1932-February 1933 3 * Horror in Scottsboro, Alabama, and War in Spain: May 1933-November 1937 4 * A People's Theatre in Harlem and Black Anti-Fascism on the Rise: January 1938-December 1939 PART TWO: THE FAR-REACHING 1940S 5 * Early Political Repression: January 1940- November 1941 6 * World War II and Black Radical Organizing: June 1942-July 1944 7 * Ebb and Flow-To Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Back: July 1946- November 1949 PART THREE: THE FEARSOME 1950S AND THE PROMISING 1960S 8 * McCarthyism at Home, Independence Movements Abroad: July 1950-December 1959 9 * Civil Rights, Black Arts, and the People's Poet: February 1961-August 1966 Glossary Personae Index

"The letters are held together by well-researched notes on black intellectuals' battles for racial and economic justice, and they paint a vivid picture of the poet's exuberant mind... Letters from Langston gives an excellet account of the racial and political challenges faced by this extraordinary writer." -- Rosemary Booth The Gay & Lesbian Review