Life

=Child-hood - Early Adult-hood= = Langston Hughes is the great great grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office. He was born in Lawrence and grew up in Lawrence Ks. In the 8th grade Hughes started writing poetry because he was one of the two black people in his class and he was selected the class poet because "Black People are supposed to have good rhythm." His Dad encouraged him to do a more practical job. He went to Columbia University and his Dad paid for it on the grounds that he study engineering. But all the while he still wrote poetry a short time later he dropped out with a B+ average. His first published poem was published not long after, it is also one of his most famous called "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". =

=Mid Adult-hood - Late Adult-hood= Hughes's middle adult-hood was a very short time because he died when he was only 45. But in this time he created 16 books of poems, 2 novels, 3 collections of short stories, 4 volumes of "editorial" fiction, 20 plays, children's poetry, musicals and opra's, 3 autobiographies, 12 tv and radio scripts, and a lot of magazines. ]Hughes loved to travel he traveled to Senegal, Nigeria, the Cameroons, Belgium Congo, Angola, Guinea, Italy, France, Russia, and Spain. One of Hughes's favorite thing to do was spend time in Jazz/Blues clubs and write poetry. As Hughes turned older his time in Jazz clubs increased and a series of poems came out calles "The Weary Blues". Hughes devoted all of his life to poetry and giving lectures he was very much a genius.