This collection of forty-seven stories written between 1919 and 1963—the most comprehensive available—showcases Langston Hughes's literary blossoming and the development of his personal and artistic concerns. Many of the stories assembled here have long been out of print, and others never before collected. These poignant, witty, angry, and deeply poetic stories demonstrate Hughes's uncanny gift for elucidating the most vexing questions of American race relations and human nature in general.
Langston Hughes (1902-67) was born in Joplin, Missouri, was educated at Lincoln University, and lived for most of his life in New York City. He is best known as a poet, but he also wrote novels, biography, history, plays, and children's books. Among his works are two volumes of memoirs, The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander, and two collections of Simple stories, The Best of Simple and The Return of Simple.
Akiba Sullivan Harper is a professor of English at Spelman College and the editor of The Return of Simple.
Arnold Rampersad, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University, is the author of The Life of Langston Hughes and editor of The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Bodies in the Moonlight The Young Glory of Him The Little Virgin Luani of the Jungles Slave on the Block Cora Unashamed The Blues I'm Playing Why, You Reckon? Little Old Spy Spanish Blood On the Road Gumption Professor Big Meeting Trouble with the Angels Tragedy at the Baths Slice Him Down African Morning 'Tain't So One Friday Morning Heaven to Hell Breakfast in Virginia Saratoga Rain Who's Passing for Who? On the Way Home Name in the Papers Sailor Ashore Something in Common Mysterious Madame Shanghai Never Room with a Couple Powder-white Faces Pushcart Man Rouge High Patron of the Arts Thank You, M'am Sorrow for a Midget Blessed Assurance Early Autumn Fine Accommodations The Gun His Last Affair No Place to Make Love Rock, Church
Appendix: Early Stories
Mary Winosky Those Who Have No Turkey Seventy-Five Dollars The Childhood of Jimmy
