Born February 1, 1902

Joplin, Missouri

Died May 22, 1967

New York, New York

American poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, autobiographer, and nonfiction writer

Langston Hughes. (The Bettmann Archive/Newsphotos, Inc./Corbis-Bettmann. Reproduced by permission.)

"[Let the] smug Negro middle class ... turn from their white, respectable, ordinary books to catch a glimmer of their own beauty."

Probably the most famous and celebrated of all African American poets, Langston Hughes had a career that spanned five decades. He produced a wide variety of literary works from novels, plays, and short stories to children's books, translations, and anthologies. But it is for his poetry—with its gripping, vivid images and plainspoken, jazz- and blues-influenced language—that he is most remembered. And the Harlem Renaissance, the period in which he began his career, simply would not have been the same without him.

A Rootless Childhood

Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes was...