Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (1901–1967) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright and a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Joplin, Missouri, he grew up in the Midwest and later attended Columbia University. His first poetry collection, *The Weary Blues* (1926), helped establish his reputation for capturing the rhythms of jazz and blues and the everyday speech of Black America. Hughes also wrote fiction, including the short-story collection *The Ways of White Folks* (1934), and co-wrote the play *Mulatto* (1935). Over a long career he published widely and became one of the most influential writers of 20th-century American literature.