The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Vol. 12: Works for Children and Young Adults: Biographies (review)

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Langston Hughes, "I, Too" (Collected Poems)

Arna Bontemps wrote to Langston Hughes in a 1939 letter, "[S]eems like we're going to be the models for future generations of writers for children and students of that literature" (Nichols 35). Bontemps and Hughes, together and separately, wrote many nonfiction and fiction books for children between 1930 and 1970. Together they cut a new path in the field of literature that celebrated as well as included the Black child reader. More than 60 years later, Hughes is one of the most anthologized Black writers of our time. Many of his poems, short stories, and essays are a commentary on the 40-plus years he experienced being a writer and a Black man in the United States. Through his poetry, plays, short stories, children's books (fiction and nonfiction), essays, and autobiographies Hughes was one of the first Black writers to earn a living at writing. He is known as one of the Harlem Renaissance writers and, for many, this setting is where the fame of Hughes begins and ends.

The Harlem Renaissance was the beginning of Hughes's career, providing a firm foundation for his life of writing. Hughes wrote about what he knew. He included in his experiences dealing with pain and pleasure, humor and drama, hatred and love and the rights and wrongs that he viewed through a time of racial turmoil in the U.S. and throughout the world. Hughes continued to erase images of the defenselessness, hopelessness, and idleness of a people throughout his writing career. Through the writing of three biography collections Hughes celebrated the accomplishments of Blacks in the United States for the child reader.

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the right for Black students to acquire an equal education, and Hughes began his second series of nonfiction books for children. The first series was "First Book." Famous American Negroes (1954), Famous Negro Music Makers (1955), and Famous Negro Heroes of America (1958) were published during an era in the U.S. of struggle for equal rights for Blacks. Hughes presented the life stories of a variety of Black Americans who courageously achieved recognition for being the first in their field, outstanding in the world of music, or courageous on the battlefield, in the U.S. and abroad. He also wrote fiction and nonfiction, providing children with positive images of Black Americans and Black culture.

This past year many books have been written to commemorate the one-hundredth birthday of Hughes. Many books for children and adults have been published about the life and times of Hughes, but few ever mention the many works that Hughes wrote specifically for children. Hughes recorded the history of the U.S. in a variety of registers and voices throughout his writing career. It is through The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Volume 12, a compilation of Hughes's three biography collections,thatreaders can see Hughes's literary dedication to the child reader.

Editor Steven Tracy's introduction gives insight into the various methods by which Hughes approached the life history of Blacks in America. Tracy explains Hughes's method of writing the three biography collections "as an artist committed to his race and to letting 'America be America again' by reaffirming the principles of democracy through his writings" (2). Tracy's research reveals that the Black American contributors in Hughes's work were known throughout Black communities through articles written by the Black press. These books were Hughes's way of showcasing to the rest of the world, mainly white readers, the triumphs that were being made by Americans which were not...