Publishers Weekly's Top Ten Fall 2024 Poetry Books

From Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes, a stunning collection of early works written from 1921-1927 curated by award winning poet and National Book Award finalist, Danez Smith. Hanif Abdurraqib calls the collection of polished poems and raw, unfinished, works-in-progress, a gift to any poet working at any stage of their life and career.

Before Langston Hughes and his literary prowess became synonymous with American poetry, he was an eighteen-year-old on a train to Mexico City, seeking funds to pursue his passion. Beloved verses like The Negro Speaks of Rivers, were written without formal training, often on the back of napkins and envelopes, and were inspired by the sights and sounds of Black working-class people he encountered in his early life. Blues in Stereo is a collection of select early works, all written before the age of twenty-five, in which we see Langston Hughes with fresh eyes.

From the intimate pages of his handwritten journals, you will travel with Hughes outside of Harlem as he travels the world, celebrate love as a tool of liberation, and enjoy his musical verse poetry, including a play he cowrote with Duke Ellington with a full score. Blues in Stereo foreshadows a master poet that will go on to define literature for centuries to come. And by keeping his original, handwritten notations found in archival material, we get to witness a genius's earliest thought process in real time. National Book Award-nominated poet Danez Smith offers their insight and notes on themes, challenges, and obsessions contained in Hughes's early work.

The definitive sampling of a writer whose poems were at the forefront of the Harlem Renaissance and of modernism itself, and today are fundamentals of American culture (OPRAH Magazine).

Here, for the first time, are all the poems that Langston Hughes published during his lifetime, arranged in the general order in which he wrote them. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, the result is a treasure of a book, the essential collection of a poet whose words have entered our common language.

The collection spans five decades, and is comprised of 868 poems (nearly 300 of which never before appeared in book form) with annotations by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Alongside such famous works as The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Montage of a Dream Deferred, The Collected Poems includes Hughes's lesser-known verse for children; topical poems distributed through the Associated Negro Press; and poems such as Goodbye Christ that were once suppressed.

Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in Black writing in America--the poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death and represent stunning work from his entire career.

The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who rushed the boots of Washington; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in the raffle of night. They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out wonder and pain and terror--and the marrow of the bone of life.

The collection includes The Negro Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, Still Here, Song for a Dark Girl, Montage of a Dream Deferred, and Refugee in America. It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.

A collection of vibrant and incisive short stories depicting the sometimes humorous, but more often tragic interactions between Black people and white people in America in the 1920s and '30s.

One of the most important writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes may be best known as a poet, but these stories showcase his talent as a lively storyteller. His work blends elements of blues and jazz, speech and song, into a triumphant and wholly original idiom.

Stories included in this collection:
Cora Unashamed
Slave on the Block
Home
Passing
A Good Job Gone
Rejuvenation Through Joy
The Blues I'm Playing
Red-Headed Baby
Poor Little Black Fellow
Little Dog
Berry
Mother and Child
One Christmas Eve
Father and Son

This beloved poem by Langston Hughes, illustrated by the award-winning Sean Qualls, is an irresistible celebration of the love between mother and baby, now available in board book format.

Award-winning illustrator Sean Qualls's painted and collaged artwork captures universally powerful maternal moments with tenderness. In the end, readers will find a rare photo of baby Hughes and his mother, a biographical note, further reading, and the complete lullaby. Like little love-ones, this beautiful book is a treasure.

My little dark baby, / My little earth-thing, / My little love-one, / What shall I sing / For your lullaby?

Storytelling is an ancient and powerful human tradition. It ties us to cultural memory and the experiences of those who came before us, linking one generation to the next. Oral tradition is of keen importance to Black heritage and is honored here in this classic work by poet and Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes. Vivid illustrations by contemporary artist Gary Kelley pair with Hughes's 1926 poem in picture-book form to invite young learners to curl up and listen as Aunt Sue recounts her many shadow-crossed stories of slavery and a life hard lived.

Our greatest African American poet's award-winning first novel, about a black boy's coming-of-age in a largely white Kansas town

When first published in 1930, Not Without Laughter established Langston Hughes as not only a brilliant poet and leading light of the Harlem Renaissance but also a gifted novelist. In telling the story of Sandy Rogers, a young African American boy in small-town Kansas, and of his family--his mother, Annjee, a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father, Jimboy, who plays the guitar and travels the country in search of employment; his strong-willed grandmother Hager, who clings to her faith; his Aunt Tempy, who marries a rich man; and his Aunt Harriet, who struggles to make it as a blues singer--Hughes gives the longings and lineaments of black life in the early twentieth century an important place in the history of racially divided America.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

The Weary Blues is Langston Hughes's first published collection of poems, immediately celebrated as a tour de force upon its release. Over ninety years after its publication, it remains a critically acclaimed literary work and still evokes a fresh, contemporary feeling and offers a powerful reflection of the Black experience. From the title poem The Weary Blues, echoing the sounds of the blues, to Dream Variation, ringing with joyfulness, to the Epilogue that mimics Walt Whitman in its opening line, I, too, sing America, Hughes writes clearly and colorfully, and his words remain prophetic and relevant today.

A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes.

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. . .

With these first lines, Hughes invites the reader into an experimental playground that tells the story of a Black man's life in America. Featuring poems such as, Dream Variations, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, and Our Land, Hughes weaves in and out of verse, highlighting the lows of struggle in the face of segregation and racism, but also the highs of creation from the time when, the Negroes were in vogue.

Now considered to be an American classic, The Weary Blues embodies the feel of the rhythm, improvisation, and soul of Black classical music, pioneered the genre of jazz poetry, and left an irreplaceable mark in the African-American literary canon.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

Langston Hughes's stories about Jesse B. Semple--first composed for a weekly column in the Chicago Defender and then collected in Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple Stakes a Claim--have been read and loved by hundreds of thousands of readers.

In The Best of Simple, the author picked his favorites from these earlier volumes, stories that not only have proved popular but are now part of a great and growing literary tradition.

Simple might be considered an Everyman for black Americans. Hughes himself wrote: ...these tales are about a great many people--although they are stories about no specific persons as such. But it is impossible to live in Harlem and not know at least a hundred Simples, fifty Joyces, twenty-five Zaritas, and several Cousin Minnies--or reasonable facsimiles thereof.

As Arnold Rampersad has written, Simple is one of the most memorable and winning characters in the annals of American literature, justly regarded as one of Hughes's most inspired creations.

Discover the power and joy of poetry in the picture book An Earth Song, a simple, modern introduction to Langston Hughes, featuring an ode to spring and long-awaited new beginnings, and heartwarming full-color art by Tequitia Andrews.

In this illustrated adaptation of a beloved Langston Hughes poem, a child delights as the world around him awakens from winter and comes to life with the long-awaited arrival of spring and new beginnings of all kinds.

Includes a biography and photograph of Langston Hughes, one of the most prolific leaders of the Harlem Renaissance, and information about the poem An Earth Song

2022 Reprint of the 1926 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition and not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. With an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. The Weary Blues is Langston Hughes's first published collection of poems, immediately celebrated as a tour de force upon its release. First published in 1926, the collection of poetry remains a critically acclaimed literary work and still evokes a fresh, contemporary feeling and offers a powerful reflection of the Black experience in Harlem in the 1920s. From the title poem The Weary Blues, echoing the sounds of the blues, to Dream Variation, ringing with joyfulness, to the Epilogue that mimics Walt Whitman in its opening line, I, too, sing America, Hughes writes clearly and colorfully, and his words remain prophetic and relevant today.

Langston Hughes was only twenty-four when he published this collection of poems. The poems included here blend vernacular speech and musical rhythms to offer a bracing perspective on the African American experience. Traversing a wide range of settings-including the jazz clubs of Harlem, expansive natural landscapes, and seaside taverns-Hughes's voice as a poet ties these various places together. The collection's themes are equally wide-ranging: Hughes explores the depth of the soul in The Negro Speaks of Rivers, the pain of endurance in Mother to Son, and death in the title poem's haunting requiem for a weary blues singer. Taken together, these poems offer a singular expression of joy, pride, and anguish from one of the leading voices of the Harlem Renaissance.

Contents: Introducing Langston Hughes to the Reader / Carl Van Vechten -- Proem -- pt. I. The Weary Blues -- The Weary Blues -- Jazzonia -- Negro Dancers -- The Cat and the Saxophone -- Young Singer -- Cabaret -- To Midnight Nan at Leroy's -- To A little Lover-Lass, dead -- Harlem Night Club -- Nude Young Dancer -- Young Prostitute -- To a Black Dancer -- Song for a Banjo Dance -- Blues Fantasy -- Lenox Avenue: Midnight -- pt. II. Dream Variations -- Dream Variation -- Winter Moon -- Poeme d'Automne -- Fantasy in Purple -- March Moon -- Joy -- pt. III. The Negro Speaks of Rivers -- The Negro Speaks of Rivers -- Cross -- The Jester -- The South -- As I Grew Older -- Aunt Sue's Stories -- Poem -- pt. IV. Black Pierrot -- A Black Pierrot -- Harlem Night Song -- Songs to the Dark Virgin -- Ardella -- Poem-To the Black Beloved -- When Sue Wears Red -- Pierrot -- pt. V. Water-Front Streets -- Water-Front Streets -- A farewell -- Long Trip -- Port Town -- Sea Calm -- Caribbean Sunset -- Young Sailor -- Seascape -- Natcha -- Sea Charm -- Death of an Old Seaman -- pt. VI. Shadows in the Sun -- Beggar Boy -- Troubled Woman -- Suicide's Note -- Sick Room -- Soledad -- To the Dark Mercedes -- Mexican Market Woman -- After Many Springs -- Young Bride -- The dream Keeper -- Poem (To F.S.) -- pt. VII. Our Land --Our Land -- Lament for Dark Peoples -- Afraid -- Poem-For the Portrait of an African Boy -- Summer Night -- Disillusion -- Danse Africaine -- The White Ones -- Mother to Son -- Poem -- Epilogue.

In I Wonder as I Wander, Langston Hughes vividly recalls the most dramatic and intimate moments of his life in the turbulent 1930s.

His wanderlust leads him to Cuba, Haiti, Russia, Soviet Central Asia, Japan, Spain (during its Civil War), through dictatorships, wars, revolutions. He meets and brings to life the famous and the humble, from Arthur Koestler to Emma, the Black Mammy of Moscow. It is the continuously amusing, wise revelation of an American writer journeying around the often strange and always exciting world he loves.

The Short Stories of Langston Hughes, written between 1919 and 1963, showcases the author'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.

From the publication of his first book in 1926, Langston Hughes was hailed as the poet laureate of black America, the first to commemorate the experience of African Americans in a voice that no reader, black or white, could fail to hear. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, this volume is a treasure-an essential collection of the work of a poet whose words have entered our common language.

A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was the first to use his poetry to reflect the real daily lives of average Black people. This collection celebrates Black pride and contains messages of hope and optimism from the 1920s.

Langston Hughes is often referred to as the Poet Laureate of African-American experience. The writer featured themes of cultural heritage, racial discrimination, and optimism in his poetry. He used his work to reflect the struggles of Black people in America, but also to send messages of hope. Jazz and blues had a strong influence on his work and dreams are a recurring theme in his poetry. Not only does Hughes comment on the American dream and Black people's inability to achieve it, but he also uses dreams as a symbol of hope for equity and freedom.

This collection features several sections, including:

- The Weary Blues

- Dream Variations

- The Negro Speaks of Rivers

- Black Pierrot

- Water-Front Streets

- Shadows in the Sun

- Our Land

Where the Jazz Band Plays - The Weary Blues has been proudly published by specialist poetry imprint Ragged Hand and features an introductory excerpt by Carl Van Vechten and the introductory essay A Brief History of the Harlem Renaissance. This collection is a perfect gift for fans of Hughes' poetry and those with an interest in Black history.

A classic anthology of short stories by Black writers including James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright -- edited and with an introduction by Langston Hughes.

Originally published in 1967, The Best Short Stories by Black Writers offers a timeless and unforgettable portrait of the tragedy, comedy, triumph, and suffering that were part of African American life from 1899 to 1967.

This Coretta Scott King Award-winning photography book based on Langston Hughes's classic poem is perfect for kids and moving and powerful for readers of all ages.

Langston Hughes'​s spare yet eloquent tribute to his people has been cherished for generations. Now, acclaimed photographer Charles R. Smith Jr. interprets this beloved poem in vivid sepia photographs that capture the glory, the beauty, and the soul of being a black American today.

Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life is a 1930 play by American authors Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston. The process of writing the play led Hughes and Hurston, who had been close friends, to sever their relationship. Mule Bone was not staged until 1991. The play begins in Eatonville, Florida, on a Saturday afternoon with Jim and Dave fighting for Daisy's affection. The two men come to blows, and Jim picks up a hock bone from a mule and knocks Dave out. Jim is arrested and held for trial in Joe Clarke's barn. On Monday, the trial begins in the Macedonia Baptist Church. The townspeople are divided along religious lines: Jim's Methodist supporters sit on one side of the church, Dave's Baptist supporters on the other. The issue to be decided at the trial is whether or not Jim has committed a crime. Jim admits he hit Dave but denies it was a crime. Elder Simms argues on Jim's behalf that a weapon is necessary to commit a crime, and nowhere in the Bible does it say a mule bone is a weapon. Elder Childers, representing Dave, says Samson used a donkey's jawbone to kill 3,000 men (citing Judges 18:18), 2] so the hock bone of a mule must be even more powerful. Joe Clarke declares Jim guilty and banishes him from town for two years. Hughes and Hurston began writing Mule Bone in March 1930. They wanted to write a comedy about African-American life that didn't consist of racial stereotypes. They decided to base the plot on a folktale Hurston had collected in Florida during one of her anthropological field trips. The two writers dictated their work to Louise Thompson, who typed it. Their work was almost completed in June, when Hurston went away for the summer. She took her notes and said she would return in the fall, and they could finish the play. When Hurston came back, she would not return telephone calls from Hughes. She felt he wanted Thompson to be considered a third collaborator in the project, a proposal to which she strongly objected. 7] 8] Concurrently, Hughes was in the process of severing his relationship with their common literary patron, Mrs. Rufus Osgood Mason. Reviewers have conjectured that Hurston may have been trying to protect her own relationship with Mason by shunning Hughes. Hurston submitted Mule Bone for copyright in October 1930, listing herself as the only author. In January 1931, Hughes found that a copy of Mule Bone had been sent to the Gilpin Players, an all-black theatre company in Cleveland, for their consideration-bearing only Hurston's name. Hurston told Hughes she hadn't sent them the play, an assertion that was true, but Hughes was furious. He sent a copy for copyright under both their names. In the meantime, the Gilpin Players wanted to stage the play. The play was still somewhat rough, but Hughes was in Cleveland, and he offered to help rewrite portions of the play. Hurston sent a telegram advising that she refused to allow the production. A day later, she sent another telegram authorizing the production on the condition that she be allowed to work with Hughes on changes. That same day, Hughes received a letter from Hurston saying that no part of the play had been written by him. In light of all the off-stage drama, the Gilpin Players decided not to proceed with their production. The copy of Mule Bone in the Langston Hughes papers at Yale University has a hand-written notation by Hughes: This play was never done because the authors fell out.