This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.
This is an addition to MSS 8870. See Virgo for records of earlier parts of the collection.
The collection is open for research use.
This collection was a gift from Regina Rush to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 21 February 2024.
Langston Hughes (1902?-1967) was an American writer who was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance and made the African American experience the subject of his writings, which ranged from poetry and plays to novels and newspaper columns.
Hughes documented African American literature and culture in works such as A Pictorial History of the Negro in America (1956) and the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro (1949) and The Book of Negro Folklore (1958; with Bontemps). He continued to write numerous works for the stage, including the lyrics for Street Scene, an opera with music by Kurt Weill that premiered in 1947. Black Nativity (1961; film 2013) is a gospel play that uses Hughes's poetry, along with gospel standards and scriptural passages, to retell the story of the birth of Jesus. It was an international success, and performances of the work—often diverging substantially from the original—became a Christmas tradition in many Black churches and cultural centres. He also wrote poetry until his death; The Panther and the Lash, published posthumously in 1967, reflected and engaged with the Black Power movement and, specifically, the Black Panther Party, which was founded the previous year.
Among his other writings, Hughes translated the poetry of Federico García Lorca and Gabriela Mistral. He was also widely known for his comic character Jesse B. Semple, familiarly called Simple, who appeared in Hughes's columns in the Chicago Defender and the New York Post and later in book form and on the stage. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel, appeared in 1994. Some of his political exchanges were collected as Letters from Langston: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond (2016).
Source: "Langston Hughes" Britannica. Accessed 4/4/24. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes
MSS 8870, Langston Hughes photograph with women journalists, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.
This addition to MSS 8870, Langston Hughes Collection, contains an 8" x 10" gelatin silver press photograph of Langston Hughes and Anna Land Butler, who is signing a book, surrounded by several Black female journalists. The land is likely signing her first book, "Album of Love Letters Unsent," published in 1952. Included with the picture is a typed caption identifying all the sitters and handwritten annotations indicating those who were deceased. Those identified in the photograph are Janice King, NYC; Conchita Nakatani, Philadelphia Courier Office; Mrs. Ryan, NYC; Jessie Vann, President and Treasurer, Pittsburgh Courier; Anna Land Bulter, Langston Hughes; and Gerri Major, Women's Editor, New York Amsterdam News. The photographer's name, James C. Cambell, is stamped on the back of the photograph.
Related to MSS 16783 and other accretions of 8870.