Few writers become household names, yet such is the case of Langston Hughes , who was perhaps the most significant black American writer in the twentieth century. His poems, novels, short stories, dramas, translations, and anthologies of the works of others span the period from the early days of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s to the black arts movement in the late 1960s. His early work was influenced by his contact with contemporary creative figures such as Countee Cullen, Aaron Douglas, and Josephine Baker. In his late twenties and early thirties, he helped to inspire writers Margaret Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks. Later he encouraged writers of a third generation, including Ted Joans, Alice Walker, and Mari Evans.

Between 1921 and 1967 Hughes became both famous and loved. Even before he had helped young blacks gain entry to the major periodicals and presses of the day, his innovations in literary blues...