The Langston Hughes papers consist of a range of items chiefly pertinent to his career as a poet and playwright.
Langston Hughes was born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri to Caroline Leary Hughes. From 1903 to 1915 Hughes lived in Lawerence, Kansas with his grandmother Mary Langston. In 1915 he joined his mother in Illinois. The family then moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where Hughes graduated high school. He then entered New York’s Columbia University in 1921, but only attended for a year.
During his time at Columbia, Hughes discovered Harlem, where he became an influential part of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1926 he published his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues. Over the course of his life, Hughes created a wide range of works including novels, short stories, children’s books, scripts, translations, and, of course, poetry. Following abdominal surgery, Langston Hughes died May 22, 1967.